Chapter One

Disclaimer - Obviously BtVS and JL aren't owned by me.

XXX

She'd thought the scariest thing she would go through was that knife, slicing across her abdomen, once, twice, again. It wasn't anything compared to how she felt when she realized Buffy was going to jump. Because they were the same blood. She was going to leave her ... on Earth ... with people who couldn't love her the way Buffy and her mom could. But her mom was gone and Buffy was going to leave. She didn't quite realize when her hand reached out and grabbed her sisters wrist. One quick tug and a step to the side had Buffy laying across the scaffolding in shock, Dawn's back to the portal. Her feet ached from running around without shoes and her wrists were raw from trying to get out of the bindings they'd kept her in. She was muddy and bruised and tired, having been treated as little more than a means to an end. Though honestly that's all she really was to Glory.

"No Buffy, it's my turn to be the hero. Besides, I'm not much use in a fight against a vampire, let alone trying to stop an apocalypse," She took tiny steps backwards until she felt the edge of the platform. She looked directly into her sisters tear-filled green eyes and couldn't stop the tears that started falling from her own. "Do me a favor and look out for Spike, OK? He's gonna be a mess," And she stepped backwards, screaming as she felt the energy rip at her, through her. It felt as though she were burning, fading, being skinned all at once. And then there was blackness and with it bliss.

As Spike stared at the messy broken body on the ground, long golden brown hair streaming around her, he felt a sorrow he had never known before. He couldn't stop staring at the body as the broken awful sobs of someone hurting even more than he was drifted down from the platform.