His hands quivering, Severin continues to hold the Seed, brimming with newfound power in his hands. It courses through him, from all his stolen touches, his stolen moments, the essence of borrowed magic. He cannot see now, his eyes are glazed over, and he can barely feel his fingertips anymore. “It’s too much. I can’t hold it any longer.”

Illyria looks down at his crumbled form, aware of the crackling in the platform below her. “You must,” she commands, but when she looks up she actually appears to be afraid. “They’ll die if you don’t.”

Still holding Buffy above them, gloating and laughing down at Xander and Willow, Simone chuckles loudly when she hears Severin screaming from below. “Looks like little boy blue’s hit his limit. Which means it’s time for my exit.”

Willow yells up at her, sword in hand, rage in her eyes. She promises to kill the vampire. Xander, next to her, swears loudly.

“Don’t think so. You’re the ones who are gonna die in this hell-hole.” Simone isn’t affected by their cries in the slightest and laughs them off. She raises her leg and kicks Buffy off the edge of the Scythe, the squelching sound making Xander’s stomach churn.

As Buffy’s lifeless form plummets towards them and slams into Willow, Simone heckles down at them as she turns to leave and climb back up the Well. “Have fun with Maloker.”

As she reaches up however, she finds her path blocked by Eldre Koh and D’Hoffryn himself, the only survivors of Maloker’s rampage of rebirth. “You hurt the Slayer,” Koh snarls at her, his light blades fizzing to life in his hands. D’Hoffryn sneers and actually looks her up and down with disgust. “And made yourself an aberration.”

Simone grins at them both, grabs Koh by his wrist and sneers in his face. “You backed the wrong Slayer.”

Koh yells in surprise at her strength. “No!” D’Hoffryn, to his credit, raises a blade in the Nitobe’s defence, promising Simone that “A creature like you cannot be allowed to survive!”

Cradled in Xander and Willow’s arms, Buffy shakes herself to alertness and weakly apologises to her friends. “I’m sorry…”

Willow ignores her, tells her not to be stupid. “Don’t be, Buffy. The new Seed’s going live any second.” She looks at the Slayer, holds her face with her hand, and makes sure their eyes lock. “As long as your sister’s magic doesn’t completely evaporate before Sev goes kaboom, she still has a chance.”

She looks at Xander and the smile and hope disappear from her face. Quietly, she curses their luck. “Too bad the kaboom’s gonna take us with it…”

As D’Hoffryn and Koh both thud behind her, slightly worse for wear, Buffy surprises both her friends and herself by getting up and raising a sword up with grim determination in her voice. “No.”

She looks at Willow and Xander. She’s telling them what is to come, and she makes them believe her with her tone. “You came down here to save my sister. I’m getting you out.”

Xander comes up behind her, taps her on the shoulder and points down. “You have a hole in your chest.”

She looks at him and shrugs. “It’s not that bad.”

As if in deliberate answer to her statement, Buffy suddenly screams in pain as Maloker breaks through the caskets above and grabs her in his claws. “Ow!” Buffy winces as she rechecks her shoulder. “Kay, it’s worse.”

Bringing the Slayer up to his nose, the Old One sniffs her and Buffy recoils in disgust. “Slayer blood,” the Old One says slowly, pondering his prize. Buffy looks back at him, wants desperately to throw up in his face.

“Demon breath,” she quips.

As she starts to pass out again, Koh attacks the Old One’s hands, slicing through one of his fingers and causing the Old One to grunt in dissatisfaction. Buffy just drops like a stone, unable to keep herself awake. Koh surges after her, swinging and, when he places her on solid ground, attempts to rouse her. “Slayer! Buffy, awake! We must defeat this creature before the Siphon explodes.”

Simone is still scrambling up, casket by casket, but laughingly calls down to the bat creature. “They’re all yours, Maloker! Summers will die down here fighting for her friends.”

Buffy looks at Koh. I am sick of that voice. “All right, Koh. Ready to clear a path and take this blood-sucker out?”

Koh doesn’t look at her, but nods. “I will fight alongside you until my death.”

As Buffy leaps up at Maloker, she looks back at Koh, who attacks the demon’s other claw, which was holding D’Hoffryn. “Let’s hope it doesn’t go that far.” She slices at Maloker’s eye and this time, his growl is one of pain.

Willow is hitting the demon from where she stands, with a mace, although she knows the huge Old One probably hasn’t even noticed her. She’s more concerned with escape. “We’ll never get out of this hole fast enough.”

Xander, also hitting the demon with his axe, starts yelling suggestions. “You sure you can’t fly us out?”

“I can’t – even if Buffy kills Maloker. We’ll never get out before Sev goes nuclear.”

D’Hoffryn, by now realising that discretion is the better part of valour, has now huddled against a rock, getting knocked about, cursing his actions. “I should not have allowed anyone into this tomb.”

Xander leaps, axe in hand and strikes Maloker in his arm. He has an idea. “Where’s the Gandalf wannabe who floated the Council down here?”

D’Hoffryn shoots him with a look that says Where do you think? “He’s inside the beast. Just like the rest of the Council!” He sighs, knocked about some more.

But Willow looks out around them and sees what she needs. She turns to D’Hoffryn. “Maybe he’s Maloker food… but his staff isn’t.”

She smiles and moves quickly, racing towards the staff, perched precariously on a ledge above her. She yells at Xander to cover her. “Keep the giant bat busy, Xander!”

Xander looks back at her in exasperation. “That’s what I’m doing!”

As Maloker grabs Buffy again, she yells in pain, just as Koh continues slashing at the Old One’s flesh as fast as he can. “You will not win.”

As Willow is grabbed by the other claw, she yells for Xander to help. Simone stops her ascent and looks down, a grin of content on her vamped out face. “Ha. I finally killed Summers…”

As Buffy is slammed into a wall by Maloker, the demon moves towards her, intending to flatten the Slayer against the side of the Well. Eldre Koh stops and turns, and yells in absolute horror at the demon. “No!”

He leaps ferociously, not stopping, bouncing off bits of rock like they’re solid ground and flies through the air. He energises his curved light blades in his hands and propels himself into Maloker’s stomach, knocking the large creature against the other side of the shaft.

Koh looks at Willow, checks she’s still in one piece and then deftly catches the Slayer as he descends. His voice is tender. One might even say affectionate. “Hang on, Slayer!”

Xander catches Willow as she falls the short distance down. “We need that staff!” Within seconds, Willow is climbing the nearest wall, reaching out with her arms as far as she can. “Almost there,” she whispers to herself.

Buffy, rousing in Koh’s arms, looks up into his eyes. Her face is bruised and bloodied, but still she moves to rise. “It’s all my fault…” Eldre Koh shakes his head, his arm around her. “No. We all chose to be here.”

D’Hoffryn looks down now, Maloker desperately trying to save himself from falling down the Well. He yells towards Willow. “The Well will collapse on us! Hurry, Witch!”

Willow snatches out with a gasp and yells in triumph. She holds the jewelled staff above her head and uses whatever connections to magic she can still feel. “Got it!” she yells, before glancing down at everyone. “Buckle your seat belts!”

Koh, still holding Buffy up, yells down in the direction of the platform. “Illyria! We cannot abandon her!”

Willow turns to him, repeats Illyria’s intent. “She wanted to stay with Sev! To make sure he channels the energy into the Seed when he lets loose!”

Illyria cannot see the platform below her now, or anything around her. It’s just bright, heavenly-like, more power than she has ever experienced before. Severin gasps and shivers in her arms, holding the vibrating Seed in his hands.

His voice trembling, he looks up at the Old One. “I can’t hold it any longer… I’m sorry, Illyria.”

She looks back at him, content in her fate and with compassion in her eyes. “Don’t be. You are giving this realm something it desperately needs.”

They both concentrate on where they feel their hands, the light coruscating up and around them, engulfing them whole.

Without a sound, a solid beam of crimson light projects itself from the Seed and emanates upwards. The initial blast completely incinerates both Severin and Illyria, as the platform ceases to exist.

As the light gets brighter, the Deeper Well begins to collapse in on itself, it’s destruction causing a cascade of magic and flame. As Maloker struggles to climb the inside of the shaft, he’s engulfed in the rising flame and crumbles into ash.

Xander watches as the shockwave comes closer and closer to the bubble of magic Willow has encased them in. “Faster!” Willow doesn’t look back, looking above the bubble, aiming and soaring as fast she can, pulling the bubble straight up the shaft. “This staff only has one speed!”

As the energy rises, Simone sees the bubble rising below her, and sniggers. “Of course.” She leaps from the ledge she’s on as the bubble soars past her. “Oh no. You’re not leaving…”

She misses the bubble, but catches Buffy’s legs as they float up. Willow yells as Buffy is pulled through the thin globe by Simone and they both fall back into the abyss, light consuming them. Her last words to Willow are a command: “Don’t stop, Will…”

Landing once again with a crunch on concrete, Buffy flips herself up, ignoring the pain she feels in every joint and every limb. Simone snarls, waving the Scythe like a lunatic, letting it hit whatever it hits.

“If I’m going to die down here, so are you!” She swings for Buffy, almost scrapes her shoulder with the blade. This time, however, Buffy grabs the Scythe handle, and stops it before it hits her face.

“No,” she says, using her strength to push the Scythe away from her. She looks at Simone, calmly raising her voice. “I let you steal my Slayers. I let you twist what we were all about. I let you terrorise too many people. But now…”

Simone pushes back, the blade edging closer towards Buffy’s nose. “Now you’ve turned yourself into everything I’m not. And I’m going to stop you.”

Simone continues pushing, confident in her success. “Good luck. The Scythe is mine.”

That angers Buffy and she pushes Simone back with her feet. “No. It’s mine. And I’m sorry I ever used it to make you a Slayer.”

With that, she kicks back and twists the Scythe around, piercing Simone through the chest. Buffy watches as she looks at the Slayer in surprise. Buffy doesn’t take her eyes off her former student as her skin crumbles into ash and her skeleton drifts away on the breeze.

Above ground, the Cotswolds is silent, the moon in the sky. Then, breaking the tranquillity and causing the ground to shake, an almighty explosion rips from the centre of the Deeper Well, blowing flame and rock into the skies for miles around and ripping the ancient oak that guarded it to shredded bark.

The force of the explosion forces the bubble up onto the surface and then it pops, depositing it’s occupants with a smack on the grassy, muddy ground around them. Bits of leaves and rocks float in the air around them, smoke and dust emerging from a small crater where the tree once stood.

D’Hoffryn dusts himself down and looks back at the crater. “We made it.”

Xander winces in pain, but Willow looks sadly back at the hole. “No, we didn’t. Buffy was down there.”

Koh walks closer to her, undeterred. “If anyone could have survived that, it is the Slayer.”

As they stand and let the moment settle, Willow backs off as she sees a hand emerge from the crater. The hand is followed by the Scythe, and Xander and Koh arm themselves.

Finally, Buffy’s head, bloodied and bruised, dirty and greasy, but alive, pops over the threshold of the hole. “Stand down,” she says happily and pulls herself up the rest of the way. “Doffler’s dust,” she says and then looks around at the damage. “Was that..?”

Willow nods, a grin on her face. “Magic? Yes. It’s back. Severin and Illyria did it. They gave the Seed the power it needed to take root.”

She looks around then, dialling down her cheerfulness. “They gave up their lives so that we could have magic.”

“So, lets make sure their sacrifice isn’t in vain.” Buffy straightens herself up and stretches. She turns around, looks at her team. They still have work to do. “We have to get back to San Francisco. We’ve got to save my sister.”

In Andrew‘s apartment, Eldre Koh has joined the Slayer and her friends, as Willow chants in Latin. There’s a circle of stones on the carpet, and Willow stands behind them, magic ringing around her hands.

“Diligentia evasit revertetur ad solidum statu.”

After ten minutes, Buffy starts to get concerned. Nothing appears to be happening. “Where is she, Will?”

Xander also steps forward, nervously. “What’s taking so long?”

“I don’t know. Something’s missing.”

Spike tuts in his corner of the room, blunt as ever. “Yeah. Dawn.”

Willow shouts in frustration. “I don’t get it! Dawn’s essence is still here! I can feel it.”

Spike turns to her, yelling slightly too loudly in Willow’s direction. “Then where’s the bloody magic?”

Willow turns, grinning at Spike in delight! “Bloody magic? Spike, you’re a genius!”

Spike is confused, wonders what the heck the witch is excited about, but takes the complement with a shrug. “I won’t argue with you Red, but what exactly did I say?”

Willow turns around to the group, looking straight at Buffy. “Right now what’s left of Dawn is just mystical energy. That energy needs something physical to coalesce around.”

She gently approaches Buffy, a small letter opener in her hand. She holds Buffy’s hands gently and slices a tiny cut in her palm.

“Your blood. Dawn was made from your blood once before, Buffy. It’s what’s going to give her life again.”

A few minutes later, the magic seems stronger, flaring brightly around the circle. Buffy yells in happiness. “It’s working, Will!”

Xander holds his arms in front of his face to shield himself from the light. “Don’t stop. Whatever you do!”

“MYSTICUM POTENTIA REDISSET!”

Willow reaches out through the ether, searching, calling… Something feels different now. The stones from the circle start to float around, spinning, faster and faster.

“VULTUX CRUOX!”

Come on Dawn… come back to us…

Then, without warning, there’s a powerful burst of energy and Willow is flung backwards. She slams into the wall, smoke around her, her concentration rattled. Her friends rush to her aid and Xander looks around the room expectantly.

“Where is she?”

Willow shakes her head in confusion. She doesn’t know. “The spell is from the Order of Dagon’s scrolls. It should have worked.”

Buffy lowers her head, sadly and then puts her arm around Willow. She looks up at Xander and the others, and whispers quietly, consoling her friend. “It’s not your fault. We were just… too late.”

Spike, Xander, Andrew and even Koh look down at her with sadness.

“Too late for what?”

The group turn, first without notice, and then double take, staring back at the voice’s owner in stunned silence.

“Why’s everyone staring at me? I’m not a giant am I?”

Dawn Summers is behind them, whole, no longer see through, smiling awkwardly at her family.

Buffy’s mouth opens in shock, but is soon a huge grin. “Dawn!” Xander looks dumb-founded, unable to quite believe what he’s seeing. “You’re back!”

Willow sighs in relief. “Thank Goddess!”

Dawn looks at the assembled group. “What happened? Everything’s so foggy.” She raises her hand to her forehead.

Buffy bounds over to her sister and throws her arms around her in delight. She doesn’t let go for a while. “That’s okay. As long as you’re not foggy.” She pulls her head back and takes her sister in, tears streaming down her face. “Oh, Dawnie! I thought I’d lost you forever!”

Spike chuckles in delight at Dawn. “You gave us quite the scare with your little disappearing act.”

Dawn then looks at Spike, slowly walking towards him, remembering more and more with each step. “That’s right. I was fading. I’m the Key. But even then I kept fading…”

Willow throws a hug around her and apologises for the late rescue. “Turns out restoring magic to an entire realm’s a lot harder than I thought.” But Dawn looks past her, straight at Spike.

“Spike, you stayed with me the whole time. I’m sorry I didn’t know who you were.”

Spike doesn’t say anything. Andrew jumps in, ensuring that Dawn knows he cares. As Dawn catches up with Willow and Andrew, who at this point is bouncing on the spot, Buffy walks over to Spike, puts her hands on his chest underneath his coat.

“She’s right Spike.”

Spike smiles at her. “You can save the thanks. Dawn, safe and sound and back in her body, is all I need.”

Away from them, Dawn walks over to Xander gently. She comes up behind him and smiles. “You did it Xander. You saved me.”

“Me? I really didn’t do anything.” He names everyone that was in the Deeper Well bar himself, his guilt making his stomach flip. He looks at her and calms himself. Then, quieter now: “I just watched.”

Dawn dismisses his take. “That’s not true. When I was just fading energy… when I was almost gone… when I couldn’t remember anything, I held on because of what you said to me on the phone. That I’d never disappear from your heart.”

She rises up onto tip toes and kisses him, gently, on the cheek. As she lets go, Xander looks at her for a moment, puzzlement on his features. “Dawn? Wait, Dawn… how do you know?”

She looks at him, shakes her head slightly. “Know what?”

Xander doesn’t say anything. He excuses himself with a gesture and walks out of the room. Dawn watches him in confusion as Buffy goes to follow, waving her to Willow. The redhead happily bounds to Dawn and takes her by the arm for a check-up. “Just to make sure your spleen is wherever your spleen’s supposed to go.”

On the rooftop, Xander looks out at San Francisco, the sun coming up over the Bay in the distance. He doesn’t need to look behind him to know Buffy is there. “She knows I helped Severin and Simone.”

Buffy turns him around to look at her, places her hands on his shoulders. “How could she? Five minutes ago, she was a cloud of mystical energy.”

He looks at her. “I don’t know. But you didn’t feel the way she kissed me. Something’s different. She knows I betrayed you guys.” He pulls away, turning his back on his friend.

“You sure that something’s not in your head? Dawn’s going to understand.” Buffy tries to reassure him, but Xander can’t bring himself to look at her.

“I betrayed you, Buffy. I teamed up with Simone Doffler. Unwittingly helped her become a Slaypire and almost got you and Willow killed in the process.”

Buffy turns him to look at her again. This time her tone is strong and confident. Leaderlike. “Xander, we won. Dawn’s alive. And if you hadn’t helped Severin and Simone hijack our journey to the centre of the Earth, the new Seed would still be running on standby for another thousand years. Without you, she wouldn’t be here.”

She moves until her face is directly in front of him and their eyes lock. Then, with tears flowing, she smiles at him. “You gave me my sister back.”

She walks back to go inside the building, and he calls after her, slightly astonished. “You’re really forgiving me?”

Buffy nods as she goes downstairs “And so will Dawn,” she says. “But you have to forgive yourself first.”

She leaves Xander alone on the roof, where he just stares out at the city as the sun rises.

Downstairs, Buffy asks Willow for her satchel. “Do you still have the book?”

Willow nods, handing the bag to her. “Yeah. Why?”

Buffy pulls the book out, stares at the cover for a moment.

“We planted a new Seed, Willow. Supercharged with magic stolen from every demon Severin could lay his hands on. I can’t afford another Twilight rerun. We need to figure out exactly what this means. For everyone.”

Up on the rooftop above them, Dawn approaches Xander in the morning sun. “What’s wrong? What’s happened?”

She’s next to him now and he pulls her into a warm hug. He smooths her hair and closes his eyes. “Can it wait till tomorrow? I think we should at least get twenty-four hours together before I complicate things.”

Inside, Buffy quietly looks through the pages of the book, whilst Willow looks at her from the sofa. “You were right,” Buffy says, concerned. “I really should have spent more time with the book when I could.”

Willow moves over, reaching out. “Why? What’s wrong?”

Buffy puts the book down between them and flips through the pages. Willow is stunned as she looks down. “It’s blank.”

Buffy looks at Willow, worry etched all over her face. “What did we do down there, Willow?”

Elsewhere, in a dark warehouse, a woman lies, surrounded by zompires. They sit and snarl, not doing anything in particular. Some are looking at the doors, watching the sun rise from a safe shadow.

The woman, a redhead with short, striking hair, suddenly awakens. Her eyes are red. Her mouth is smothered with dry blood. She feels for her face, notices the fangs and shrieks in horror. She startles to her feet and spins around, noticing the zompires around her. “What? Where am I?”

As they crowd her, she turns to them with a growl, seriously pissed. “You turned me?” she snarls in rage. “No!” The zompires rush her, throwing her backwards, and the woman kicks and screams. She lands in a patch of sunlight coming from a hole in the roof and the smell is instantaneous as the zompires burn in the light, sizzling to ash.

But the newly turned vampire is still sitting there. Her fangs are out, her eyes thin and looking for prey. And yet she sits in sunlight, feeling the heat. She looks up surprised, feeling it on her skin, and she reaches for it. “Warm…” she whispers in pleasure.

As the zompires around her back away from the light and peer at her in surprise and confusion, the woman gets up and stares at them, standing full-length in the beams of the rapidly rising light. She mocks them, asking them if they want the light, laughing at their lack of intelligence.

“You like that, you slobbering vamp-anderthals?” she grins. Then she glares at the light. “Because I’m full of surprises.”

Much to her amusement, she transforms into a bat, and then, avoiding the grip of the zombified demons around her, rushes up into the rafters of the roof…

…and out into the San Francisco dawn…