Here it is. At long last, the end.
There's still an Epilogue or two to go, but this is the main end of the story.
I feel very... odd. Happy? Sad? Some strange primal emotion i don't have words for?
Énouement? Ellipsism?
One of those.Enjoy
The End of the beginning“Oh wow. Should I bow or curtsey? I mean I don’t have a dress on because of all the fighting, but maybe I could go and get one?” Willow said, panicked.
Tara simply knelt.
“Please, no,” she said in a warm contralto voice. “Don’t kneel. No one should kneel, least of all you,” she said as she helped Tara to her feet.
Her warm gaze swept the Scoobies. “You are all my children, and I am grateful, so very grateful for you all.”
“Uh, hey,” Xander said, scratching his head. “Um, welcome back, I guess. Um, not trying to be rude, but how come you look like Joyce?”
Joyce frowned. “Really? I was thinking she looked a lot like my mother.”
“Silly people,” Anya commented. “Nothing here is concrete. Everything is representative of something.”
“My brain hurts,” Xander grumbled. “Once more, for the hard of thinking please?”
Anya grinned evilly. “Xander, you don’t have a brain. You are literally brainless. So no, it doesn’t hurt.”
“Jeez, Harsh,” Faith said. “Pick on the poor guy why doncha?”
The Goddess watched with quiet amusement.
Anya rolled her eyes. “No, a brain is a piece of fatty tissue. He doesn’t have one. So he really can’t have a sore brain.”
“What?”
“He died, remember?”
“You’re dead!?” Buffy squeaked. “I thought you got teleported away or something? What happened?!”
Anya sighed and shot the Goddess a long-suffering look.
“This is what happens when too much happens at once.”
She turned back to the others. “Yes Buffy, Xander is dead. Same as me. Same as Joyce and Jesse. Yes, we should all be sitting around talking about how important this is, and how this changes things. Yes, this is the most important thing to ever happen to us. Except for Faith giving birth five minutes ago. And us winning a war against the powers that be. And Dawn.
And the return of The Goddess.”
“It didn’t hurt,” Xander said. “I just saw a real bright light, and I woke up with Anya helping me out of a pool.”
“Well it shouldn’t,” Anya said brightly. “You took a hit that would have killed a god. That has to be the quickest and cleanest death ever.”
“I must be one of the only people in the world who gets to say something like this, but thanks Xan-man. You really saved the day there,” Faith said, hitching Hope just a little higher.
Xander grinned, a little dazedly still. “No problem. I figured if I got back fast enough, I could make a dramatic entrance and really save the day.”
“Well, you got half way there,” Dawn said. “It was a hell of an entrance.”
“Yeah. Still a little dizzy and wigged out, but I’ll cope.”
He scratched his head and glanced at their guest. “Um, Your goddess-ness? Why the low key entrance? How come it’s not all trumpets and earthquakes? Not that I mind, it’s just not what I think of when I think of
The Goddess showing up.”
“Please Xander, call me Gaia,” She said. “There will be drama soon enough, but this time is for you all.”
She looked at the battle-weary Scoobies warmly.
“There has been enough stress for ten lifetimes, and I just wanted to enjoy a moment with some of my favourite people. And perhaps give some explanations, if needed.”
“I would appreciate some information, if it’s not too much trouble,” Giles said politely.
She nodded. “Of course.”
She looked around the room. “Make yourselves as comfortable as you can. This room is lacking in amenities, but at least we will not be disturbed here.”
“You can’t just whip up some couches?” Faith grumbled.
Gaia shook her head. “No, sorry. Not here, for reasons I shall explain shortly.”
“I can,” said Anya. “Give me a second, and try not to think of your favourite couch, it’ll mess things up.”
She concentrated, and a ring of couches appeared. The Scoobies gratefully collapsed into them.
“This looks like the couch in my workshop,” Xander said.
“Yes. I used your thoughts as the pattern. Like ‘don’t think of pink elephants.’”
“Before we begin, let me welcome the newest member of the family,” Gaia said.
She moved over to Buffy and Faith. “Oh what a little cutie!”
“Yes she is,” Buffy said, loyally, brimming with all the pride of a brand new parent.
“Heh. I though she looked a bit prune-like myself,” Faith said.
“Well, she was born just five minutes ago,” Buffy said. “And we haven’t had a chance to clean her properly.”
Anya handed her a large glass pitcher of warm water, and a stack of the thickest fluffiest towels in the world.
“Wow,” Buffy said. “Have I told you you’re awesome, today?
“No, but I always like compliments,” Anya said.
“You’re awesome.”
“Yes I am. You are welcome.”
Hope made a strange mewling sound, and Faith took a look. “Hey the afterbirth is doing its thing. Think it’s time to cut it off.”
Buffy fingered the Scythe. “The first born-Slayer. I think it’s only appropriate that we use the Scythe to cut the cord. Also its super sharp.”
Faith held Hope while Buffy made sure all the blood had finished draining into Hope’s tummy, and tied the cord.
“Xander? Come here a sec.”
“You need me to hold her?”
“Nah. Just… there’s gonna be lots of birthdays and uncles and aunties and shit. But you, you’re special. You gave your damn life for her, man. For both of us.”
Xander looked away blushing. “Aww. Shucks. You’d have done the same.”
“Ya big doofus,” Faith said affectionately.
“Not the point. You actually
did it. So you get to be her first uncle. And you get to cut the cord.”
“Yay?” he said uncertainly.
“Hey, it’s a big honour dealie,” Buffy said. “And only slightly gross.”
She held up the scythe and glared at it. “You. Behave.”
She handed it to Xander. “She’ll be good.”
He took the scythe and looked at it carefully. “She?”
“You were expecting a ‘he?’” Buffy said with raised eyebrows.
“Point.”
“Gimme a sec,” she said, as she held up the bit Xander was to cut.
“Cut this bit,” she said, holding out a bit of the slippery cord.
Xander carefully cut it with the Scythe. There was a little blood, but not much.
“There you go,” Buffy said reassuringly. “Hope, meet your favourite uncle Xander.”
“Favourite?”
Buffy smirked. “You or Andrew. I bet on you.”
“What about Giles?”
Faith snorted. “Good point. Hey Grandpa! Come meet your first granddaughter.”
“You too grandma,” Buffy said, smirking at her mother.
“See, you still get to be favourite uncle,” Faith said. “And Mrs S is favourite Grandma.”
Joyce gave her a look that promised retribution for the ‘grandma’ crack.
“I will point out that ‘favourite auntie’ is up for grabs,” Buffy said.
Dawn, Willow and Tara gave their best puppy eyes. Which looked decidedly odd on Dawn, what with her ‘stars and galaxies’ eyes.
“Whoa! Promise me you’ll never use that power for evil,” Buffy said.
They all grinned, which rather spoiled the effect.
“What about you, your Goddessness?” Faith said. “Did you want to meet your newest follower?”
Gaia smiled. “How about we let her make that choice, when she grows up, hmm?”
She looked down at Hope, nestled in her mother’s arms.
“Oh look at you,” she cooed.
“Wanna bless her?”
The Goddess shook her head. “Not that I don’t want to, but I can’t.”
“You can’t? How come?” Buffy asked.
The Goddess sighed. “This leads us to the next part of the discussion,” she said.
“The Goddess does not get involved,” she said. “Why is that?”
There was silence for a moment, before Tara spoke. “I’d always thought that it was a maturity and responsibility thing. How could we grow and stand on our own two feet, if The Goddess, if
you are always fixing things?”
“Very wise,” She replied. “But no.”
“The sad truth is, I was trapped outside the universe, and could not get back in.”
“Wuh?!” Xander said. “Aren’t you all powerful? All knowing?”
Gaia shook her head. “No. I am very powerful indeed, but there is no such thing as infinite power. Neither am I all-knowing.”
“Wow. That puts a different spin on things.”
“Omniscience is no fun,” she said. “Trust me, I know.”
Willow frowned. “I thought you said-”
She smiled softly. “I’m not omniscient, but I
was.”
“But you’re not now?” Willow.
“No. I gave it up.”
“Um, if it’s not too personal, why?” Willow asked.
The Goddess smiled. “For wonder, and love.”
“Also knowing everything is really boring,” Anya added.
“That too,” Gaia replied. “When I was omniscient, I set all of us on the best path. And then I gave up my knowledge of the future. Like you, I know the present, and remember the past, and I can guess at the future.”
She sighed. “It would have been nice if it hadn’t left me stuck outside of creation for an astonishingly long period.”
“How long?” Tara asked.
“Time is
inside the universe,” Dawn explained. “’How long’ is a meaningless concept, outside of it.”
“Even five minutes is too long,” The Goddess said. “But, because I am not omniscient, I was able to be tricked, by those I trusted the most.”
“The Powers That Be?” Xander asked.
She nodded. “Yes. They said, quite reasonably, that it was not possible to get a full appreciation for creation, from inside it. So I went outside for a look. They were right. Unfortunately, while I was out, they closed the door, and sealed it behind me, trapping me, and my companions outside the universe.”
“How come you couldn’t get back in?” Xander asked. “Aren’t you all Goddess-y and powerful?”
She nodded. “Yes. But, unfortunately, the universe is not.”
“Xander, it wasn’t that she couldn’t break open the door,” Dawn said softly. “It was that she couldn’t open the door without destroying creation.”
“So we live in a glass house?” Buffy said.
Dawn nodded. “It’s not a matter of force, but delicacy. It’s not possible to get in without a Key. Especially when someone seals it shut, using the skin of the universe, and seals the Key inside.”
“And that’s what you do?” Xander asked.
“No Xander,” The Goddess said. “The Key… Dawn, is so much more than that. I created her to help me do the delicate tasks that I could not do.”
Buffy snorted. “Delicate? Heh. This from the girl who cannot be trusted near anything white?”
Dawn rolled her eyes. “One time Buffy. That was one time.”
“My favourite pants!” Buffy shot back.
“And to this I say: cope.”
Buffy glared.
Dawn ignored her glare. “I’m the Key, Buffy.”
“To what?”
“Everything. We made the universe together. You should have seen it Buffy, it was so beautiful.”
“You made the world?”
Dawn shook her head. “We made
all of them Buffy. All the worlds in
all the dimensions.”
She looked sad.
“And look what they have done with them.”
“I did the big things,” Gaia said. “Shaped the overall design and the rules of the cosmos. But my first creation, my first child was The Key. Was Dawn.”
She smiled affectionately at her. “She helped me build the universe. Galaxies were her idea.”
Dawn beamed.
“You… wow. Galaxies?” Heather said.
“Yep! Only took a little tweaking. But this is the problem. It doesn’t matter how awesome Buffy is, she cannot do microsurgery with her bare hands. She’d just smash everything. I can’t do tiny things like make a couch appear. Gaia… Mom, couldn’t get back into creation, without smashing everything. And they knew it. They held all creation hostage.”
Dawn looked down sadly. “She needed me, and I was locked inside the box she needed me to get into.”
The Goddess squeezed her shoulder reassuringly. “No more pain, dearest. No more pain.”
Joyce gathered her into her arms, and held her tight.
Dawn smiled radiantly. “I have both my moms now,” she said happily. “I’m happier than a puppy with two tails.”
“Don’t feel too bad Dawn,” Gaia said. “I was locked away from those closest to me, and could only watch. But I was not alone.”
“Really hoping this has nothing to do with tentacles,” Xander muttered.
Anya frowned. “But I thought you-”
Faith coughed. “Jesus.”
She grinned at the utterly mortified Xander and Anya. “Never change, you two.”
“No, no tentacles,” Gaia said, humour tingeing her voice. “But you may find some of my companions familiar.”
She looked back to the door. “They were kind enough to wait, to give me this time to meet you all, but I dare say they are eager to come home. Would you like to meet them?”
“Sure, I guess,” Buffy said. “As long as they’re nice.”
Gaia handed her a shining silver horn.
It was long and straight, like something out of a movie.
“Call them home Buffy. Bring them all home.”
Buffy took the horn. “Yay for grandpa Jensen and his random bugle lessons.”
She took a deep breath and blew the horn.The note that rang out was as bright as the metal of the horn, and rang on for an impressive length of time.
Buffy could have sworn the ground shook, as if unfathomably mighty drums thundered in counterpoint.
After the shining tones faded away, for a moment, silence reigned.
And slowly a sound began to build.
Starting as a whisper that only the slayers could hear, the sound built.
At first, a whisper like the rush of wind or rain on a beach, heard at a distance.
The sound built into a roar, and the first shapes cried with joy as they burst from the mighty gate.
Winged forms poured through, each crying with joy and victory.
The door was vastly tall. And now the Scoobies could see why: everyone who came through the gateway was flying, and most of them simply kept on flying, out through the high balconies and archways, and into the emerald sky.
“Whoa!” Willow said. “Angels!”
She looked at Tara. “Looks like you have relatives.”
“I’m hoping these ones are nicer than the ones I grew up with.”
Out of the vast host, one figure spiralled down to where the amazed Scoobies stood.
A small women landed in front of them.
She was as delicately built as Buffy, and her hair was the kind of fiery red that would have made anyone a proud member of the Weasley family. Her wings were a beautiful hazel shade, tipped with black, and her gold-chased silver armour shone like a mirror.
She carried a long and glittering spear, which she cast aside with a clatter, and embraced Buffy with desperate strength.
“Oh sister, it is so good to be back!”
Buffy looked over the woman’s shoulder at Willow and mouthed the word ‘sister?’.
Willow held up her hands helplessly.
She mimed hugging.
Buffy awkwardly hugged the ecstatic angel.
She looked up. Her eyes were shining with joy, but her face was puzzled.
“Sister, where are your wings?”
Buffy’s eyes widened. She pointed at Willow. “Ha!”
And Dawn. “Ha!”
“I knew it!” she crowed.
Willow (rather redundantly) looked towards the heavens in exasperation.
“We are never going to hear the end of this,” she said.
Unnoticed in all the ongoing tumult, a non-winged person had stepped through the doorway. She walked up the long hallway, the sounds of her approach lost in the skirling cries of the thousands of angels still pouring through the door.
She was able to walk right up to the Scoobies before she stopped, losing her nerve.
Her eyes shone as she took in the odd little family.
A single hesitant sob escaped her.
Tara looked up, from the confused but happy reunion, and froze, all thought stopping.
Willow looked sharply sideways at the sudden blast of confusing emotion.
“Momma?” Tara whispered.
“Oh my sweet girl,” she said softly.
“Momma!” Tara said, and ran to her mother.
Rhiannon O’Liatháin opened her arms and gathered her long missed daughter into her arms.
If she had any issues with her winged and armour-clad daughter, they didn’t show, as the two women hugged each other just as hard as they could.
“Momma! Oh momma!” Tara whispered.
“My sweet girl,” Rhiannon murmured back. “You’ve grown so much.”
The reunited pair hugged and cried and murmured for a good couple of minutes before they even became aware of the rest of the smiling Scoobies.
Tara turned her shining eyes on her beloved. “Momma, this is Willow. Willow, meet my momma.”
“Rhiannon, please,” she said. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.”
Willow glomped her in a hug. “Thank you for Tara. Thank you soooo much.”
She chuckled. “My pleasure.” She leaned back to look at Willow.
“Willow?” she quirked a twisted smile.
“I knew I had a good feeling about that tree.”
“How did you know?” Tara asked softly.
Rhiannon laughed. “I didn’t. I just had a hunch. The Sight works like that a lot of the time.”
“Is it ok to ask what happened?” Xander asked.
“It’s ok sweetie,” she said, reassuring Xander.
“I died, and after I died, I came here,” she said, gesturing around at the heavens.
“But something didn’t seem quite right, and so I explored. It was hard to put my finger on. It wasn’t that there was evil in heaven, so much as something missing.”
“I looked, and more importantly, I
listened and eventually I heard her,” she said, her eyes shining as she looked across at the Goddess. “There in the Well of Souls. The Guf. Where new souls enter creation, I heard her.”
She smiled at Faith and Buffy. “She was singing to Hope.”
“I couldn’t understand her, but I could hear the sadness, and almost forlorn hope in her voice. There was so much sadness.”
She smiled a sad smile at her daughter. “I had to do something.”
“I heard her too,” Faith said softly.
Rhiannon nodded. “You would. You carry her blood. All Slayers and witches do.”
Xander made a Scooby-Doo noise. “Wuuhu?”
“Ooo! Let me handle this one!” Dawn said brightly.
The Goddess nodded graciously, though there was an amused twinkle in her eye.
“The First Slayer was Lilith,” Dawn explained. “She wasn’t supposed to be a ‘Slayer,’ just a person.”
“Oh hey, I remember this bit,” Faith said. “Also the first woman, first witch and first dyke.”
Dawn nodded brightly. “Yep. And all for the same reason. She was created by us,” she said, gesturing to herself, and the Goddess.
“Humanity was created by my servants,” The Goddess said. “You know them as The Powers That Be,”
“Wuuhu?!” Xander said.
“Wowie!” Willow squeaked. “That’s… Wow. So Slayers aren’t human?”
The Goddess shook her head. “No. And yes.”
“That narrows it down,” Buffy muttered.
“Slayers are my original design. Humans are the economy model,” Dawn explained. “Ever read the bible? Angels first, then humans.”
“This is… Why?” Xander said. “I don’t get why.”
“I’m sorry, Xander,” The Goddess said. “It’s my fault. I let myself get tricked. And if it hadn’t been for that, everyone would be Slayers.”
Brows furrowed all around.
“Giles? What’s the first part of the old Slayer handbook?” Dawn asked.
Giles recited easily from memory "This world is older than you know. Contrary to popular mythology, it did not begin as a paradise. For untold eons demons walked the Earth. They made it their home, their Hell. But in time, they lost their purchase on this reality. The way was made for mortal animals, for man. All that remains of the Old Ones are vestiges, certain magicks, certain creatures-"
“That’ll do,” Dawn interrupted.
“I never get to finish that,” Giles muttered.
Dawn poked her tongue out and turned back to the others. “Now, we have some idea of how powerful the old ones were. And they already ruled the earth. So how was it even possible for them to ‘lose their purchase’ on it?”
“What would it take?” Willow asked out loud.
“Slayers,” Buffy said. “An army of Slayers.”
“Cha-ching!” Dawn said. “Yep. In the beginning there were lots of Slayers. They brought down the Old Ones, the ones that didn’t flee this dimension, anyway.”
“You weren’t my firstborn,” Gaia said. “But you were my proudest creation,” She said with a touch of motherly pride.
“The Slayers killed or drove out the old ones. It was during that war that the Scythe was made,” Dawn said.
She held up a forestalling hand to Buffy. “Yes, I know it’s an axe. It was called the Scythe, because it cut down the last of the Old Ones. And for generally mowing down the badguys like grass. You might like to know, the last of the Old Ones was killed by it as it tried to flee. And it left a hell of a big hole in the world.”
“Sunnydale?” Xander asked.
“Yep. The world was a different shape then. Continental drift is a thing. But yeah, that’s where it happened. Minus the continental drift.”
“And the Scythe?” Anya prodded.
“Was left there,” Dawn said. “It was the only place it could be hidden from the Powers That Be. The whole place was awash with the energies of the Scythe and the dark powers of the last Old One. So they couldn’t detect it. They thought it was destroyed.”
“Wait, continental drift?” Willow said. “That’s not a few thousand years. That takes millions of years. Back then, there were no people, just monkeys and apes.”
“This is where it gets tricky,” Dawn said. She shot an uncertain look at the Goddess.
She just smiled back. “You are doing fine.”
“Right. Well, this would work better if I could just teach you Old High Gallifryan,” she muttered.
“Don’t let Reggie and Ethan hear you say that,” Giles said under his breath. “You’ll never hear the end of it.”
“Not a fan?” Xander said, smirking.
Giles raised an eyebrow. “It’s a fine show, and one that I’ve watched since I was a boy, but I have never tried to build a Tardis. Which is more than I can say for Reggie and Ethan,” Giles said with a sniff.
“Even back in my wild days, I still had to play mother hen to those two clowns.”
“Well, the reason the language is tricky is because the past and future have been re-written. More than once. And, as a result, history, the past, and what
actually happened, are three different things,” Dawn explained.
That got some stunned silence.
“The Old Ones had many powers, including a limited ability to meddle with reality. The Powers That Be, have the same ability. As a result the past, present and future have a number of patches. And because no magic is perfect, there are leftovers. Relics, books and beings left over from previous pasts.”
She sighed. “It’s all a bit of a mess really.”
“There’s the plan The Goddess had. Some of that was overwritten by The Powers That Be. Some more was overwritten by The Old Ones. Which had the neat side effect of removing most of the evidence for a lot of things.”
“This’ll make the fundies laugh. People
were designed. And then the past was rewritten so that they evolved. After The Old Ones tried to rewrite history so that there
were no people.”
She smirked. “Bits of stuff are still around. Ever wonder why there’s so many buried horrors?”
Slow nods all around.
“That’s because a lot of the more powerful creatures are like Xander. Killing them barely slows them down. So the longest term solution is burying them.”
Xander preened a little.
“This is where it gets more awkward.”
“More? Is that even possible?” Xander said, goggling at Dawn.
“Yep.” She turned to Buffy and Faith. “Congrats on the bouncing baby girl you guys. But this was no miracle. This is the way it was always supposed to be.”
“Slayers can get other Slayers pregnant?” Faith said.
“Yep. That was the plan. No babies without love. The more love, the easier it is.”
“That doesn’t sound… bad?” Buffy essayed. “Where does the awkwardness come in?”
“Because it didn’t suit the Powers’ plans. So they copied the plan for the animals, and made humankind. Before that, it was only Slayers. And they only came in one type.”
“Oh now I feel redundant,” Xander grumbled.
“Don’t feel bad Xander. It might not have been planned that way, but lots of good came of it. We got you. And Giles!”
“Not every surprise is bad,” Faith said, hefting Hope a little.
“With only one Slayer at a time, there was no chance of a full Slayer being born to two of them.”
“So what does a ‘full’ Slayer look like?” Xander asked. “Sorry, I’m still trying to wrap my head around the reality editing. I think I’m focussing on simple stuff as a defence.”
The fiery-haired angel took a bow.
“Oh, does this mean our daughter is going to sprout wings?” Buffy said perking up.
Dawn nodded. “Yep.”
Buffy shot her a look. And then frowned as she looked at Willow and Tara. “I’m going to need you to chase our daughter.”
Willow blinked owlishly. “Us?”
“Yep. You can fly. You
so just pulled baby-sitting duty.”
“I might be jumping to conclusions here,” Tara said. “But as someone who unexpectedly sprouted wings one day, I have a feeling you’ll be able to chase them yourselves.”
“Really?” Buffy said, sounding more hopeful than she had in a long time.
Tara nodded. “It seems reasonably likely, given all the changes you’re going through.” She gestured at the ecstatically beaming angel. “Plus your relatives seem to have them.”
Faith nudged her. “
Our relatives, cuz. Plus hey, you’re most of the way there already.”
“Um. Despite the wings, I’m no Slayer,” Tara responded.
She paused for a moment, before turning to their flame-haired guest. “I’m sorry. I forgot to ask your name.”
The red-headed angel laughed musically. “It has been a
very busy day. My name is Talia.”
“And while we are talking of names and introductions, there is someone else I want you to meet.”
She waved, and a figure glided gently down from the stream still exiting the gate.
She had short blonde hair, and a heart-shaped face, currently adorned with a soft smile.
Unlike most of the other angels, she was not wearing armour, but wore a flowing dress of yellow and white.
“Hello Tara. And thank you.”
Tara wracked her brain. There was something very slightly familiar about the white-winged angel, but it just would not come.
“Tara, meet Ariel. Ariel, meet Tara.”
“Ariel?” Tara said thoughtfully.
Her eyes widened. “Ariel?!”
“Hello my dear. And thank you for rescuing me from that place.”
“I’m confused,” Buffy said. “I’m guessing you’re not the littlest mermaid, what with the wings and all. But who are you?”
“Buffy, she gave me my wings,” Tara said. “She gave her life for me, and set me free.”
Willow hugged the woman. “Thank you. Thank you so much.”
“Wait, you’re alive?” Buffy asked.
“Yes?” Ariel said. She let go of Willow, and shrugged.
“Death is not the clear dividing line that many people think it is. And for us, that line is even more blurry.”
She took Tara by both hands. “Thank you for setting me free of that place. I could not return home from a place so deep and dark.”
“Oh wow. Um, you’re welcome?”
“Thank you.”
“Uh guys?” Buffy said. “I know there’s a lot we need to talk about, and soooo much catching up to do, but can we go home?”
“I really need a fucking shower,” Faith said. “Like, more than anyone has ever needed a shower.”
She looked uncomfortable for a moment. “I got stuff running down my leg that I don’t even know what it is.”
“Sleep would be good too,” Heather said, eying her girlfriend uncertainly.
“Relax baby. I promise, I’m still Dawn. And when we’re out of here, my eyes will go back to normal. Promise.”
“Let’s go home.”
“You sure?”
Dawn nodded brightly. “Yep. This is one thing I
can do.”
+++
Some time later…
The Scoobies stared in amazement.
When they’d started planning out their new home, Xander had wanted a super-long dining table, that could seat
everyone.Nobody was convinced.
Until ‘Hogwarts’ was mentioned.
That sealed it.
And so, two tables of beautifully polished dark wood had been secured.
And up until now, they had been a convenient place to stack books, while the library was sorted out.
And despite Giles’ most heroic efforts, only a fraction of the books had been catalogued and stored.
Still, in the meantime, someone had cleared the tomes and scrolls away, polished the tables, and laid a spread worthy of anything Hogwarts could deliver.
Four types of roast beast, stew, dumplings, salads, roast vegetables, mashed potatoes and sauces galore.
Buffy eyed the vast array of food.
“I’m sensing a theme here,” she said. “Very… british?”
“Well, I did ask Mary to lay on a spread for when we got back. I rather thought that we might need one. And if we didn’t come back… well, I imagine we’d have other issues.”
He looked at the astonishing quantity of food. “Though she seems to have outdone herself.”
“Ohmigod!” Dawn said. “I am sooo hungry!”
“Me too!” Xander said brightly.
He frowned. “Can I eat?”
“Yes. You can,” Anya said. “You don’t have to, but you can if you want to.”
She patted him reassuringly on the shoulder. “You’re going to find that a lot of the things that you feel, aren’t real. They’re just habits from when you’re alive. Like being hungry. And tired. And sleeping.”
“This is a lot to take in,” he said. “Let’s eat.”
“Attaboy,” Anya said, swinging her fist in what she obviously thought was a reassuring way.
“Y’know, I’m hungry too,” Willow said, looking longingly at the table. “But I’m not sure what I want to eat, I mean chicken is always good, and that beef looks nice, but there’s lamb! And pork! And I don’t wanna be some jewish rebel stereotype, but the pork looks yummy!”
“And she precut it for us,” Giles said. “Although I don’t mind carving, with a group this size, it’s doubtful I would get anything to eat today.”
“I think I’ll have the lamb,” Tara said, breaking the spell by making a beeline for the food.
With that, everyone piled in, and for the next few minutes there was nothing but the sounds of everyone figuring out where to sit, and the happy sounds of determined eating.
Many minutes of intense devouring later…
“Oh Goddess,” Willow said. “I am so spoiled.”
She patted her tummy. “Happy tummy.”
“Best thing you ever did Will. Hiring Mary,” Buffy said sleepily amid the demolished remains of her own meal.
“There’s no way you’re payin’ her enough, Red,” Faith said similarly sleepy.
“Indeed,” Giles said.
“I dunno,” Willow said. “She’s making more money than even a top flight chef. The only people making more are the TV-star chefs.”
“She should be here,” Faith said. “She made all this, and she doesn’t get to eat it? That ain’t right.”
“I understood that she had a romantic date planned,” Giles said. “I
did ask her if she wanted to join us for dinner, you know.”
“Well, let’s get started,” Faith said. “We can all do the baby goo-goo stuff last, just in case we all need cheering up.”
She looked down, and her stern look melted to what could only be described as ‘pure adoration.’
Buffy likewise had a wondering look. “Holy shit, B,” she whispered. “Look what we did.”
Giles chuckled. “It looks like motherhood agrees with you.
“Fuck yeah. And no wriggling out, G. What was with that? Since when did you learn to catch lightning bolts.”
Giles sighed and looked down the enormous table. His whole family was present, even the extended ones.
Buffy and Faith were watching him when they could tear their eyes away from Hope, nestled in Buffy’s arms.
Tara and Willow we’re looking on in a way that could only be call ‘clucky’.
Fiona and Emmy looked at him curiously and sympathetically, respectively.
Xander kept poking himself in the stomach, and looking puzzled, clearly wondering where the food was going to go.
Anya was nibbling a crispy roast potato on a fork, and smirking at him.
Dawn was looking at him encouragingly, holding hands with Heather, as if needing the contact.
Jules fiddled with a napkin, while watching him with some interest.
Buffybot sat next to her, poking a vegetable curiously with a skewer.
Seated next to her was Oz. His usual mellow state was positively tranquil, and he simply waited.
And that left Bomber and Ethan, who were looking annoyed, and smirking respectively.
Joyce patted his hand reassuringly.
He cleared his throat. “Ah, how many of you have seen the Highlander movie?”
Oz, Xander, Willow, Ethan and Bomber nodded or waved.
“Blast. That would have made it a bit easier,” he muttered.
That got some confused looks. From everyone except Buffy and Brie, who just looked sympathetic.
Giles shook his head.
“The second law of thermodynamics states that energy can neither be created, nor destroyed. It can only be moved or transformed.”
That got more puzzled looks.
“Magic follows different rules overall, but in this it is similar.”
He took his glasses off. “I doubt you will have forgotten, but a few short years ago, we fought a Hellgod.”
Many sympathetic looks followed. Dawn especially shot him a look of silent understanding.
“And while we all fought side by side to defeat her, with Buffy taking the brunt of it, it was not Buffy who eventually killed her. That dubious honour fell to me.”
That got a few raised eyebrows.
“Power has to go somewhere. And her power went into me.”
He stood up straight. “I am a Hellgod.”
Stunned silence followed.
Silence (oddly enough) broken by Oz. “Huh.”
Willow stuck her hand up worriedly.
Giles quirked a small smile. “We are not in class, Willow. Just ask your question.”
“Um, ok. I’m glad your all god-y and powerful and could help with the fighting and lightning catching and poopy Powers beating-up but, how come you’re not all evil-y and dark?” she said nervously, her words spilling out in a rapid stream.
Giles took off his glasses and polished them with his tie.
He looked at them thoughtfully for a moment, and then put them aside.
“Because demons and gods can indeed be malevolent, but they have no idea of the dark depths of the human soul.”
He looked around at the assembled Scoobies and their extended family.
“Each of us carries a capacity for immense darkness. I will point out that the worst monsters in our history were fully human and had human souls. Even the worst of vampires pales in comparison to the horrors committed by well-meaning people, even in the 20th century.”
“It is our greatest source of strength. Humans have a capacity for darkness that would stun even the most terrifying demons, if only they knew. Our strength comes from resisting it.”
He looked around, getting nods from most. The most surprising was Xander, meeting his eye and nodding his understanding.
“Many of you are aware of my… my shadowed past. I don’t wish to dwell on it, but it was far deeper and darker than anyone was aware.”
“Suffice it to say, clawing my way back to a semblance of sanity and civility gave me the tools to deal with Glory’s darkness.”
He smirked slightly. “Hellgods are powerful. But when it comes to darkness, they are bloody amateurs.”
“That’s the real reason he left,” Buffy said softly.
Giles nodded. “Yes. Although I was eventually able to master the additional load of darkness on my soul, I still needed help, and time away from those I cared for most, so that I could focus exclusively on dealing with it.”
“Uh, so how come you didn’t unleash a giant can-o-whupass on the First?” Xander said, looking confused.
Giles raised an eyebrow. “The First Evil? Using the tools of darkness against the greatest known darkness in existence?”
“Ah. Good point,” Xander said. “It would have got to you huh? How come it didn’t get you anyway?”
“Glory’s greatest gift was stealth. She may have been powerful in many ways, but her undetectable nature and ability to warp reality was her greatest strength. Even limited as she was, locked inside a mortal body, she was still able to hide from The Powers That Be, any spells, and even the memories of the living. Eventually I was able to harness this power and hide my new nature.”
“So how come you didn’t just zap me when I went all dark?” Willow asked.
Giles sighed. “Because I didn’t want to hurt you. And I was barely holding myself together. I had to interrupt my training to come back, and it was likely that any ‘zapping’ as you put it would have left a crater. Please keep in mind it has been several years of constant work, and I’m still only barely aware of my capabilities. The coven’s entrapment spell was the best idea I could come up with.”
He gave her a level look. “In addition, using more dark magical powers on someone who is also drowning in darkness, well, that struck me as massively unwise.”
Willow nodded. “Um, thanks. I know I said it before, but I can never thank you enough for that.”
She looked around. “All of you guys. You especially,” she said, looking at Xander.
He blushed and looked away. “S’ok Will. Any time.”
Willow reached out. “Ugh. I can’t reach. And I’m too full to move. Can you hug him for me?” she said to Anya.
“Sure!” Anya said brightly. She hugged Xander close and kissed him passionately.
“That’s more tongue than I would have used,” Willow said.
“I don’t think he minds,” Dawn said with a smirk.
“Do please try to keep it above board,” Giles said with mild disapproval.
They parted with a pop.
“Just letting him know I still love him, even though he’s dead,” Anya said.
She looked around seriously. “You should all talk about that now. Process it and whatever.”
“What’s it like?” Willow asked.
“Uh, hard to say,” Xander said. “I don’t have Anya’s experience, and no-one gave me a boost. So I’m not a Whitelighter or anything, just a regular freshly dead person.”
He thought for a moment and scratched his head. “Mostly like being alive. I don’t seem to get tired though.”
“And you don’t need to sleep,” Anya said. “Which is going to take some time to get used to.”
He nodded. “Sometimes I get the feeling I sort of know stuff, but I don’t know it, y’know?”
“Those are your other senses unfolding. Everyone has them, and some even learn to use them while they’re still alive. Slayers and witches for example. You grow into it,” Anya explained.
“I’m just wondering where the food goes.”
“You don’t need it,” Anya said. “You can either get rid of it, or convert it into energy if you figure out how.”
“How do I do I do that?”
“Well, you’re still thinking like a human, so the human way,” She said. “Go poop it out.”
“It doesn’t hurt?” Willow said. “Not the pooping, the being dead.”
Xander smiled. “Nah. Didn’t even hurt getting here. Just a flash, bright lights, and Anya pulling me out of a pool.”
“It normally takes longer,” she said. “But he was very determined, and I was able to help. All of which means he’s going to be disorientated for a while.”
“It is a big change, my boy,” Giles said kindly.
“More than becoming a god?” he said with a smirk.
“Well, I did have practice, being naturally godlike” he replied urbanely. “And I had a little more time than you did,’ he said with a teasing smile
“How come you still have an eyepatch?” Willow asked.
“Because I want one,” said Xander. “I might wanna give it up one day. Maybe. But it’s part of who I am now.”
“And you no longer see with your eyes, so it really doesn’t matter,” Anya said simply.
“This is gonna take some getting used to,” Willow said.
“Well, I have time,” Xander said with a smirk.
Little Hope took that moment to cry and make a small fuss. “Aww, she wants her mommy,” Faith said, and promptly handed her over.
Buffy took her and cuddled her, but she continued to quietly complain and wave her arms around.
“Looks like she wants feeding,” and made to hand her back.
“Looks like,” Faith said, and started undoing Buffy’s top.
“What are you doing?”
“Feedin’ her. Ya got tits too you know. Plus, it’ll help with that,” Faith said, pointing at the two wet spots on Buffy’s chest.
“Ugh,” Buffy grunted. “It happened again.”
Faith smirked. “Ya need ta be milked, B.”
She rotated Buffy so she was facing away from the rest of the gang. “No sense giving everyone a free show.”
She twiddled Buffy’s nipple and got an outraged look, until the pink nipple formed a peak, and she deftly attached little Hope.
Buffy’s eyes went wide. “Oh. Wow.”
“Weird feeling, yeah?”
Buffy just nodded dumbly.
“Heh. The books said it was real important for the mother-daughter bond, all that breastfeeding and stuff. Plus hey, having it leak into your shirt is just a waste.”
“Holy cow!” Buffy squeaked breathlessly. “I’m breastfeeding our baby. This is real, and I’m not hallucinating?”
“Nope.”
She looked down at her daughter, sucking away determinedly.
“Really hoping it’s your turn when she starts teething,” Faith said.
“God-” Buffy said, breaking off. “Goddess, she’s beautiful.”
“Yeah, she is,” Faith said adoringly.
Buffy glanced up and saw most of her family grinning at her.
Willow and Tara both looked a little wistful.
She hid a smirk.
‘Won’t be long now,’ she sent silently to Faith.
Faith looked up and caught Tara’s eye, seeing the longing there.
‘Oh yeah. Little Hoppy is gonna have a cuz to play with, no doubt.’‘Hoppy?’‘Duh.’‘Ok, I guess that was kinda obvious.’‘Yep. And we need to give her a middle name, so she knows she’s in trouble.’‘Pretty sure that’s not what they’re for. Any ideas?’‘One. How about Joyce?’“Joyce?” Buffy blurted.
“Yes?” Joyce said. “Though I also answer to ‘mom.’”
“Uh, what?” Buffy said, confused. “No, Faith was talking about middle names for the baby.”
“Hope… Joyce?” Dawn said. “Rounded up to the nearest dozen, how many fights did you want her to get into each day?”
“Hey, our girl can fight,” Faith said.
“While Joyce is indeed a lovely name, it may not be the best choice for someone whose first name is ‘Hope’,” Giles said placatingly.
“How many fights did your name cause
Rupert?” Buffy asked.
“None,
Buffy,” Giles said, stressing Buffy’s name tellingly. “In the British isles I’ll have you know, Rupert is a perfectly ordinary name.”
Ethan made disbelieving snorting noises in the background. “Liar,” he muttered.
“Which brings us to Dawn,” Giles said, attempting to divert attention from himself.
“Wow. Smooth,” Dawn said flatly.
Giles sniffed. “If it works, it works.”
“It tells you something about our lives that teasing you about your name is right up there with magic babies, dead people visiting, gods in the family and, oh yeah, a war in heaven,” Dawn said.
“Eh,” Xander said with a shrug. “We had to talk this stuff through at some point. It might as well be now.”
She looked around at her family, who were all looking at her expectantly.
“Ok. So, I’m Dawn, and I’m the Key,” she said, setting the stage.
“The Key was what the Goddess created to do small fiddly things like building galaxies and stuff, after she’d done the heavy lifting of creating the universe. Multiverse really.”
“Galaxies are small fiddly things?” Xander said. “Great googly moogly!”
“Try building a cosmos some time. Compared to that, galaxies and stars are child’s play.”
“Anyway. The Key had to be both powerful, and flexible. It was sort of intelligent, but not self-aware. Kinda like a really clever robot, before she became a real person.”
She nodded to Buffybot, who smiled brightly.
“Then, when the Powers That Be dorks made their move, they sealed me up, and dumped me on the mortal plane.”
“I’d have thought they’d have locked you in a vault or something,” Willow said.
Dawn shook her head. “Too close to the power. Too close to the door. There was a much better chance that I’d wake up or something if I was up there. That and I would have been a constant reminder of what they’d done to their own mother. Nope, they needed a nice quiet place to dump me, but somewhere they could keep an eye on me.” She held up a hand to forestall Willow’s next question. “Which is why they didn’t dump me in another galaxy or something.”
“And the Order of Dagon?” Giles asked.
“They and the Knights of Byzantium were descended from the men they set up as watchers over the Key. And no, that’s not a coincidence, the Watchers we all know descended from them too.”
She looked around and saw that everyone was following along.
“And that’s about it for the parts that make any logical sense to four dimensional beings.”
“Wuh?” Xander said.
“Time,” Willow explained.
“Yup,” Dawn said. “Reality has been re-written a few times. The Powers That Be tried to go back and rewrite things, but without my help, they couldn’t make it stick. The closest they could come to creating a new time line lead to the creation of the Old Ones. When they didn’t like what they’d created, they tried to erase it, and substitute a version of the original time line. But that didn’t stick either. So we have little leftover bits of stuff all over the place.”
“Jesus. What a mess,” Faith grumbled.
Dawn nodded. “Oh yeah. That’s the world we inherited, a patchwork job. They cleaned things up a bit, like creating the Deeper Well to put the dead old ones. But after that, they quit messing. But the damage was done. After the reality of the world was cracked, it wasn’t that hard to re-write bits of it.”
“Even moderately powerful demons could do it. Like D’hoffryn,” Anya interjected.
“Can you fix it?” Willow asked.
“Yes… and no,” Dawn said.
She looked sad. “Yes, I can fix it. Easily even. But, everything here, our lives, our friends, all the things we’ve done are all a product of that patchwork reality. If I fix it, all that goes.”
“Wowwie,” Willow said, wide eyed.
“Oh yeah. In essence, I can put the original timeline back in place, but only by killing every single person on earth, and building a new one. With different people on it.”
“That’s… a lotta dead people,” Xander said glumly.
“Worse,” Tara said softly. “All those people wouldn’t be dead. They would never have existed.”
Dawn nodded. “A lot of the stuff about the world we know was only possible because it
was such a patch job.”
“Oh I don’t know,” Ethan said urbanely. “It left all sorts of possibilities open for chaos magic.”
He grinned. “That Halloween in Sunnydale would never have been do-able without it.”
“That was reality messing?” Xander said.
Ethan raised a haughty eyebrow. “Of course. Where do you think all those memories came from? Crafting a single memory is relatively easy, but crafted memories for hundreds of people? Whole lives?” he shook his head. “Not possible.”
“Eh. Wasn’t all bad. I got a load of firearms training out of it. Also pushups and how to stay alive in a jungle.”
“And only a little PTSD,” he muttered.
“Of course!’ Ethan said brightly. “It wouldn’t have been chaos if something good didn’t come out of it.”
“I got so much science stuff out of it,” Dawn said.
Willow blinked. “Oh yeah. Einstein.”
“Totally. Einstein, er mochte die Damen. Viel. Wow, die Dinge, die ich dir erzählen könnte, wenn du Pussy isst.“
Giles coughed, and flushed slightly. Faith looked thoughtful, and Dawn could see her working through the words before she grinned.
“I got ballroom dancing, embroidery, and turn of the century European politics,” Buffy said.
“You don’t look happy about that,“ Ethan said mildly.
“Yeah, i guess i passed history thanks to you. But the French and German didn’t stick.“
“Hardly my fault.“
“Moving right along,“ Dawn said. “It brings me to my next big thing. Which is this. Now that the Powers That Be have been overthrown, some of the changes they made to the world are coming undone.”
“Is this a good thingy, or a bad thingy?“ Willow asked.
“Good. Definitely good. Though it does mean the start of our next big adventure,” she said with a smile.
“We’re adventuring again?” Buffy said. “Already?”
“Yeah, but this is not the same. Much lower stakes. Sorta.”
“What are we doing?” Xander asked.
“Reclaiming our homeland,” Dawn said.
“We have a homeland now?” Buffy said in surprise. “When did that happen.”
“Since always,” Dawn said casually.
“I think we’ve seen it,” Tara said. “You were there.”
Dawn nodded. “Yep. Time is my bitch.”
Buffy looked up from Hope, the gooey expression fading away as she focussed. “Wait, what?”
Dawn made a face. “Ok, this involves time travel, so causality gets a bit… squiffy,” she said, her hands miming a tangled mess of some kind.
“The Key was used to create time, among other things. This means that it stands outside time, to a degree.”
She grinned. “Which means I have a unique relationship to time.”
“And for the non-brains in the audience?” Xander asked.
“Well, time isn’t really linear, at the best of times. For me, it means that I can be in more than one place in time.”
“So the wedding…?”
“I wasn’t there yet, but I will have been. Sooner or later. To both of them.”
Xander’s brow furrowed. “Uh.”
“Yeah. Tenses are fun.”
“Both of them?” Willow asked.
“Well yeah,” Dawn said. “You don’t think I’d miss yours do you?”
“Ours?” Tara asked mildly.
“Well duh. Like you guys getting married really comes as a surprise?”
“You’re gonna be there?” Faith asked. “Oh. Duh. Course you are.”
“Yours too.”
Buffy blinked. “Oh. Right.”
“Same wedding. It’s a double wedding, you guys.”
“Well, I had thought about that,” Buffy began.
“You have to now. Otherwise the whole spacetime continuum would collapse,” Dawn said in a matter-of-fact tone.
Clearly she’d been studying Anya.
“And here I was, worried about rain on the wedding day,” Buffy said dryly.
“Nope. Clear skies the whole day,” Dawn said.
She grinned. “Trust me.”
“Anyway, yes, I was back in the past, on our ancient homeland. And this is where Buffy gets a swelled head and is insufferable for a while.”
“What? Why?” Buffy said.
She made an incongruous picture, looking irked, while simultaneously breastfeeding.
“Because the missing land, a country even, is called ‘Summer.’ Also known as ‘The Sunlit Lands’ ‘The Shining Lands’ and in the language of the most common people at the time ‘Mu’.”
“Oh my,” Giles said.
“Yeah, Mu is real. The Powers That Be just folded reality over it. They couldn’t excise it completely, which is where all those lost kingdom and Atlantis legends come from.”
“And I’m assuming that the similarity between the name of the land, and the Summer’s surname is not a coincidence?” Giles asked.
“Nope. Given that mom is technically dead, that puts Buffy as the oldest living member of the Summers family. Which means, she’s the Princess of Summer.”
Buffy squealed. “Ha! Take that Kristi Hernandez!”
“Oh my god!” Dawn said. “That was like, ten years ago, and you’re still carrying it around?”
Buffy sniffed. “She was a real bitca about it. Kept going on about being descended from a Spanish infantas.”
“Bitca?” Xander said with a smirk.
“Tiny ears,” Buffy said. “Very tiny, perfectly formed ohmygodsocuteyoucoulddie ears,” Buffy gushed.
“Right. I’d better get this over with before Buffy melts down completely,” Dawn said.
“So yes, long ago, Slayers had their own country. When the Powers That Be tried to erase it from existence, it was evacuated.”
“We saw her,” Tara said softly.
Dawn nodded. “The Queen. I remember. And the last queen to reign over the land of Summer.”
“Wait, how does this fit in with Sineya?” Buffy asked.
“Badly. Remember I said that it got all squiffy?”
Nods all around.
“Well, Remember, The Powers tried to rewrite reality. And it didn’t take. So history is a little broken there.”
“I’m not sure if that makes it better, or worse,” Willow said.
“A little of each,” Dawn replied. “I’m going to have to try and fix it at some stage.”
“So what happened?”
“The history of Summer was overwritten with the new history. But like a toastie maker when you over fill it, bits leak out.”
Tara nodded and added softly, “Like all magic.”
“Yup. Metaphysical safety valve. So, the Powers gave a load of power to a bunch of African shamen, and got them to bind the strongest Slayer.”
“And from her, the others?” Willow asked.
“Yep. Principle of contagion. But, because of the inevitable loophole, Sineya herself was not bound. Though the whole process messed her up like, a lot.”
“Because demon?” Xander asked.
“Yep. Takes a lot of darkness to bind the light of a Slayer.”
She eyed Buffy and Faith. “You two are essentially fledgling angels.”
“Wicked.”
“I’ve been meaning to ask-”
“When you mature,” Dawn interrupted. “You
were going to ask about wings, right?”
Buffy nodded brightly.
“I’m not sure exactly. You would have had them ages ago, but the Slayer essence has been diluted. It slowed your growth. Hope won’t have that issue.”
“It would be good if we got them before our daughter did. Chasing after toddlers is hard enough. If they are toddler slayers who can fly, it doesn’t bear thinking about.
Joyce hid her face, and silently laughed into Giles’ shoulder.
Faith spotted it. “B was a handful, huh?”
Joyce nodded into Giles’ shoulder.
When she looked up, she was nearly helpless with laughter.
“Oh, I’m so glad I got to see this,” she said, her voice almost luminous with barely suppressed laughter.
“If she takes after you at all, she is going to be a handful.”
“Ooo!” Willow said, lighting up. “Embarrassing baby stories. Spill!”
“No!” Buffy protested.
“Yes!” Faith retorted.
“Well, when she was younger, it was all we could do to keep clothes on her.”
“Mom!” Buffy protested.
“And when it came to bath time, she’d cover herself in shampoo, and try and escape.”
Dawn’s eyes went wide. “You rotten liar!” she said, pointing an accusing finger. “You said I did that!”
Buffy looked embarrassed.
“Like a slippery eel,” Joyce continued. “Hank was not impressed when a soapy-wet Buffy went sprinting through the house, buck naked, and slid across the lino.”
“Though his clients thought it was hilarious.”
If Buffy went any redder, she’d probably catch fire.
“So you have that to look forward to,” Joyce said with a smirk.
“Ohmigod. Just kill me now,” Buffy complained.
“Man, I miss all the good stuff,” Faith said.
“You won’t. Trust me,” Joyce added.
She grinned. “My parents were right. Being a grandparent
is fun.”
“Guh,” Buffy grunted.
“Children are a blessing,” Joyce said. “But they are also hard work. Allow your mother a moment of well-earned Schadenfreude.”
Buffy glared.
“Oh I’m going to love this,” she said with a bright, cheerful smile.
“Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m quite replete,” Giles said.
“You’ve got one of those word-a-day dictionaries, don’t you?” Willow said.
“Quite. Though I was suggesting that we retire to the lounge. Dining room chairs are not really designed for a relaxing chat.”
“I’m really tired,” Willow said, “But still way too wired to sleep.”
They all staggered to their feet, one by one, and drifted tiredly in the direction of the lounge.
“Last time you said that Will, the first Slayer tried to kill us in our dreams.”
“We came to an understanding about that,” Buffy said, still breastfeeding as demurely as possible. “I don’t think she’ll do that again.”
She looked down at the tiny life in her arms. “God, how much can you drink? I think I’ve lost 10 pounds already!”
“I thought that was Faith?” Tara said innocently.
“Hoho!” Faith crowed. “Nice one!”
“Tomorrow, we’ve got a big day,” Dawn said. “Lots of planning, a homeland to reclaim, and all sorts. But tonight is for us to relax and spend quality time with family.”
She dropped tiredly into the couch.
“Wow. I ate so much,” Xander said.
Five minutes later, the room was filled with soft snores.
Here ends the Story.