With the ranks thinned out, even if only a little, the battle was far more even handed now. Each of the vampires could easily take on several of the former humans, or the gremlin creatures. Glory was still playing Godly ping pong between Hera and Buffy. Faith was still making major headway with the mixed army of gremlins and former humans. But the main battle was inching ever closer to Spike and Dawn. Oz faced his own assault from the forces against them. He let slip the ultimate Dog of War as he begged his God's indulgence for his friends safety and his God's mother's safety.
He felt that familiar warm buzz that was his God's blessing. The careful control over the berzerker mode in the wolf's mind. Letting go just a little more he tore into the enemy.
Willow and Tara had established a magical field between them, one fighting either side of Glory, Hera and Buffy, they tapped Glory's energy levels weakening her with the constant flow of her power leaving her grasp. Her image had begun to flicker slightly. Only once or twice had she suddenly looked several inches taller, dark haired and male.
In a burst of desperate action Glory grabbed a hold of Buffy and threw her over her head and into a group of her little worshipers; where upon they seemed to swallow the blonde slayer whole. Glory staggered on towards the only absolutely pure life force on the entire battle field. She used one of her own gremlin creatures to bat Oz out of the way. She discarded the broken necked creature once it had served it's purpose. Faith lunged for the Goddess but was just as easily swiped aside. Desperation had loaned the Goddess strength and focus. Both of which had pinpointed Spike's distended belly as her immediate target.
Faith was the first to recover her feet. But it had been so long since she had been in proper combat that it took precious seconds for her to orientate herself as to what was currently happening.
"No!" Dawn screamed. Instinctively she knew what Glory's target was this time. And it wasn't just her. "Spike, move back!" She screamed. Getting Angel's instant attention. He turned, just as Harmony did. Between them they each used a zombied fighter as a battering ram. They both headed back towards Spike and Glory's inexorable advance against him.
"Oh, a vampire with on board snacks. Now that's just so damn thoughtful!" She reached out and pulled the dazed but still fighting Oz out of her path. She physically picked up the writhing, snarling near wolf beast and tossed it towards the slowly climbing to her feet Buffy. "Here, snacky, snacky!" She smiled at Spike, not his face, just his distended belly. "You look so delicious. Just a ripe little plumb for me to eat." She reached out towards Spike.
Spike swiped at the questing hand with the short sword in his own hand. He cut her. He drew blood and her rage with it. He didn't like the way she had picked up Oz and threw him away like a rag doll. Nor the way she had casually thrown the Slayers aside either. It didn't bode too well for him and Dawn.
A handgun went off, startling everyone, as Dawn emptied the entire clip of an automatic pistol she'd drawn from Spike's bag of weapons into Glory's advancing form.
Glory stopped for a vital few seconds as she shrugged the squashed bullets out of her borrowed form. That had really hurt. She had felt almost every one of those pesky little bug bites.
"Oh, naughty Key. Just you wait till I bleed you dry. I won't use a clean blade. Not after you just did that!" Glory flicked her gaze towards the Key then back to her newly designated primary target. "Look, little vampire, why don't you just stop all this struggling and let me do what you know I'm going to do anyway."
Hera and the witches were forcing power through the draining spell. Emptying the Goddess as fast as they could possibly manage. As the flickering between Glory and Xander increased Buffy finally untangled herself from the gremlin creatures she was thrown into, with Oz's help. They turned to head towards Spike and Glory.
Spike swiped his sword at her a few more times. Cutting her on each pass, until she grabbed the blade from his hand and threw that behind her too. Right into Hera's hands, narrowly missing Faith's head in the process.
"Son of my Blood, use this body as your Instrument of War!" Hera reached out with her mind to her son, the God of War, and extended his power through her own and into the sword. Just as the power fully filled the mortal blade with it's devine energy Glory reached Spike.
A pain filled scream tore from the blond vampire's throat as he felt Glory's hand sink into his belly and touch, so briefly, the baby within. She had no time to really focus on her objective as Faith lashed out at the Goddess' face. Punching, scratching, hurting, distracting her for a few vital seconds.
"No!" Angel's agonised scream joined Spike's inarticulate scream of fear and pain. He grabbed Glory and pulled her hand physically out of his childe's belly and away from the fists pummelling her and turned her to face him.
Everyone, bar Spike, looked on as Angel let slip the bounds on Angelus. He beat at Glory's face. He ripped at her eyes. He bit at every part of her that his fangs could reach. And no one begged him to stop. Then he glanced beyond the blonde Goddess to his childe's blonde vampire friend, the one that smelled so strongly of Spike, and threw Glory to Harmony's mercies. He finally realised that of course Spike liked her, of course she smelled of him. She had been adopted into the Order of Aurelius, she was his grand childe by Spike's own choice. Not by blood, not that that mattered at the moment. All that mattered was family, and she deserved her reward for defending her family, while he turned to comfort what remained his.
Angelus willingly returned to his own corner of Angel's soul and the dark vampire rushed to his fallen, grieving childe. He picked Spike up and rocked him. Nestling his hurt childe against his knees. Just as he had intended the morning after his attack on Spike. He gathered his childe to him for protection. Inarticulate growls and whines rolled off Angel's tongue as he tried to comfort his childe.
Harmony managed to get in a good few hard blows against Glory until Oz and Buffy relieved her of her burden. She let her eyes take in their enemies and saw that the dark haired Slayer was dealing with the situation most proficiently. She sighed, raggedly, then, released from her immediate need for vengeance, she too reached for Spike, to offer comfort. Instinctively she lowered her eyes, and made little yips of submission as she reached for both Angel and his injured childe. She knew her place in the pecking order. Spike had adopted her as a childe. But this was her adopted sire's physical sire. His was the greater claim. He commanded their family, and she just followed his lead.
Spike cried. He unashamedly cried into Angel's chest. Unable to stop the tears even if he wanted to.
Angel continued to cradle him, comforting him as one would any frightened child. Unable to stem his own tears, unwilling to even try.
Harmony faced Angel, a hand on Spike's arm, ready to fight off any not of their vampire family that would dare touch Spike. Under her breath she uttered prayers for the unborn child in Spike's belly. She pleaded with Apollo, with Asclepius the Gods of Healing. She prayed to Hera, to Demeter and all the Goddesses of Fertility for that tiny baby's life. Over and over she uttered her prayer. Her words only audience was Angel, and the Gods. All of whom listened and grieved with her.
Buffy and Oz were turn about ripping into Glory. Neither could ever forgive what she had just done. Spike's cries fuelled their rage until Glory finally managed to break free. Her image was quivering, shifting, moving back and forth between herself and Xander's true form. As she did so, shifting into Glory's form she reached for Dawn, and caught her. Instantly halting Buffy and Oz's assaults.
Not to be taken so easily Dawn smashed the now empty gun, butt end first, into Glory's face, making the Goddess stagger and shift once more. This time Xander regained a firmer hold over his own body and looked at the devastation Glory had created using his body as her home from home.
Xander kept a hold of Dawn and he spun them both around, he saw his perfect solution. Somehow he remembered who the woman with the sword really was. He had managed to keep it from Glory by deliberately keeping his mind blank. There were, however, enough remnants of Glory's memories and knowledge left for him to even see the preternatural power running through that sword. That gave the ghost soldier in his soul an idea, an idea that would not only win them the battle, but end the entire war.
"I'm sorry pumpkin, but as long as we both exist she'll always find a way back. This isn't her holy place you know?" He smiled, sadly, into Dawn's eyes.
She knew, somehow, what he intended to do. And she nodded, just once.
"Do it now then. Before I change my mind." Dawn whispered to Xander and reached up to embrace him as close as she could get him to her own body. Hiding her face so that Spike and Buffy wouldn't be able to remember her tears. That was one memory she didn't want to leave them with.
Xander ran at Hera's sword, impaling them both. Discharging the power of Glory, and the power of the Key, and even the power of his own life force through that sacrifice directly into Hera.
In a bright flash all three vanished.
Leaving behind them the quieting tears of a heart broken vampire. And the words no one present would have wished him to ever have to say.
"She touched the baby, Angel. She touched her. She hurt her. And I don't know how much! She touched the baby. I felt her hand, inside, touching Alicia."
Angel touched Spike's belly. At last getting to feel that child within. He expected to feel the cooling of her corpse, but instead he felt the strong rhythm of her heart, still beating. Still so very much alive.
"She's still alive, Spike. Listen, feel her heart beat. She's still alive." Angel's renewed tears were tears of hope. "Where there's life, there's hope." He took Spike's hand in his and placed them both back on his childe's belly. Feeling that firm heart beat with his beloved Childe. Their child still lived.
"Xander's gone." Willow's grieving voice eventually broke in on Angel's awareness. "He killed himself and Dawny." There was another brief pause. "Oh Gods, Buffy!"
Angel continued to hold his childe close as they both felt the child within his belly live. Her heart beat a strong reminder of life. As he held Spike he looked around them. The former human fighters were mostly dead. The few gremlin creatures that had survived the battle were dropping to the floor, turning to dust. Nothing without their Goddess as focus.
"Right, where would Hera have gone? Can we get there? Where can we dispose of the bodies safely?" It was Faith that took command. She turned to the few faces she was most familiar with. "Cordeilia, could you contact Giles, let him and Wesley and your other friend know what's happened. They might have some ideas." She tried a tired smile at Cordeilia and felt a flood of relief when the dark haired girl smiled just as tiredly back. "Where're your friends?" She looked around, counting their number.
"Kate? Anya?" Cordeilia asked. She turned over bodies, some covered in gremlin dust, some just dead gremlins until a choked sob was drawn from her. There, at her feet, was Kate's bloodied and broken body.
"Is she.." Willow almost asked as she stepped up to Cordeilia's side. She crouched down and felt a faint heart beat. "She's alive, but seriously injured. She needs help, now!"
"I'll see to her." Oz easily picked her up in his half wolf form and headed for the door. "I'll take to the nearest hospital and get right back. Okay? And Anya ran, early on. I guess she couldn't face what she knew we'd have to do to Xander. What he did to himself. I guess we're going to have to tell her just how brave a man he was, right up to the end." He didn't wait for an answer, he just headed out with his hurt comrade heading for the help she needed.
"Phone Giles!" Cordeilia reminded herself, firmly. She headed for the reception area and the telephone. Dialling, she noticed that her hand was shaking. She glared at he offending hand and let a sob slip. "I don't know the number.." She confessed tot he roof. Her shock and grief both threatening to take over her mind.
Tara repeated the number for Oz and Spike's place. She'd used it so much in the last few weeks, keeping in touch with Hera, and what had become home base to them all.
"Thanks." Cordeilia tried a smile and, just as Faith had found out, she found it returned.
"Willow, help Buffy onto a sofa. Erm, I'm sorry, I don't know your name?" Faith smiled, very shyly at Tara.
"Tara." Tara informed her, trying to smile bravely.
"Tara." Faith acknowledged the blonde girl with a smile. "Could you make coffee and tea for everyone? I think it's supposed to help with shock." Tara nodded and headed for the kitchen. "Erm, I don't know your name either." This time she was slightly more confident that smiling helped. She smiled at the blonde vampiress. "But, could you go with Tara and see to whatever blood requirements you and the others have?"
Harmony looked up at the dark haired Slayer, grateful for any guidance and direction at that moment. She smiled, shakily, and she too headed for the kitchen. She had direction, something to do for her sire and grand sire.
"Angel, do you need help assisting Spike to the other couch?" Faith asked her personal inspiration and mentor.
"Thanks, Faith. If you could." Angel let Faith help him, yet he never fully relinquished his grasp on his Childe. "So, how did you get out in time for all this chaos?" He tried to establish a normal conversation with the dark haired girl. Anything to let his own equilibrium reassert itself.
"Spike got me parole. He stood up in court for me and got me released to the recognisance, is that the right word, of an employer of his choice. So long as my parole officer agrees." Faith smiled at Angel and at the vampire still firmly held in his arms.
"The others are on their way over. They'll be here in maybe thirty minutes, depending on the traffic." Such banal conversation finally hit Cordeilia and she started to cry, quietly. "Is it all over?" She sobbed.
"Yeah, all over. But not all done with." Faith lead the sobbing girl to sit by Buffy's side. With such normal kitchen sounds filling the air she finally had time to take stock. "We need an obstetrician." Was the only thing she could immediately think of to say.
Tara and Harmony brought tea, coffee and blood out of the kitchen. Passing mugs around they all finally found someplace to sit, or perch and wait. Faith sided with Angel and Spike, as did Harmony. The blonde vampiress was content to sit by her adoptive family's side, just in case they needed her.
They all waited for Giles, Wesley and Gunn to arrive. And for Oz to return. And the hope that one of them would have an idea of where to go from there.
On her couch Buffy just sat, nestled between Willow and Cordeilia, motionless, tearless. Alone.
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