Into the Void

Disclaimer: None of the characters or places are mine. This chapter is straight from "The Gift", so none of it is mine either.

A/N: This chapter is a kind of recap. I will have the next chapter up tomorrow afternoon.


* * * *
* * *
* *
*
Buffy pulled her sister back. "What are you doing?"

Dawn looked at her with regret. "I have to jump. The energy..."

"It'll kill you."

Dawn continued to look into her sister's eyes but now her own were filled with determination. "I know. Buffy, I know about the ritual. I have to stop it."

Buffy shook her head. "No."

"I have to. Look at what's happening," Dawn told her as a dragon appeared from nowhere and circled them before flying off to wreak havoc elsewhere.

"Buffy, you have to let me go. Blood starts it and until the blood stops flowing it'll never stop. You know you have to let me. It has to have the blood," Dawn finished sadly.

And Buffy suddenly remembered:



"...Cause it's always got to be blood."

"It's Summer's blood. It's just like mine."

"She's me. The monks made her out of me."

"Death is your gift."




And she knew what she had to do. Buffy took a good look at the coming sunrise before turning and taking hold of her sister.

Dawn knew. "Buffy, no."

"Dawnie, I have to."

"NO!"

"Listen to me. Please, there's not a lot of time. Listen. I love you. I will always love you. This is the work I have to do. Tell Giles---tell Giles that I figured it out. And--And I'm okay. And give my love to my friends. You have to take care of them now. You have to take care of each other. You have to be strong. Dawn, the hardest thing in this world is to live in it. Be brave. Live... for me."

Buffy tucked her sister's hair behind her ear, kissed her cheek, and then turned and ran to the end of the platform where she leaped into the great, glowing vortex and disappeared.