Plans

“That’s your plan?” Xander asked, hurt and incredulous.

“It’s…” Willow stammered.

“Insane,” Maya finished for her. She’d gone so pale even her lips were white.

“It’s rather brilliant, Dawn,” Giles said, quietly.

William scoffed. “It’s madness,” he said, “And you’re daft if you think we’ll be going along with it.”

Dawn sat, hands folded in her lap, watching them with outward calm. Inside, her mind ticked like the inner-workings of an
elegant clock. It was better to have a plan than to give yourself to chaos. It was better…

“All your blood,” Willow was saying. “Glory’s ritual called for all of your blood. Dawnie, don’t you remember?”

“I remember,” Dawn answered. “That’s where Maya comes in. And,” she hesitated. “Thellian.”

Silence spun out like a silver thread; William was the one to pick it up.

“No,” he said. “Dawn, no!”

The rest seemed to get what she was insinuating seconds later. Xander jumped from his place on the concrete steps and
stabbed an accusatory finger at Thellian, who leaned against the cool wall opposite him.

“You bastard. You got to her,” he shouted. “You’ve assimilated her into your evil world domination schemes…”

“No, Xander,” Dawn said. She gazed up at him from her chair, a halo of stark light illuminating her hair. “It’s
my plan. The
fact he’s here just ups my chances.”

“See,” Willow said with a wan smile. “We
do need him.”

“But Dawn,” Maya said. “This level of magick… I’ve never even dreamed of attempting it.”

“But you can do it, right?” Dawn said levelly.

“Theoretically,” Maya couched. She glanced at Willow, who nodded encouragement. “With Willow’s help, I’m leaning toward
a strong perhaps.”

“Good,” Dawn said. “Giles, Rachel, I’ll need your help setting up the ritual once we get to Triumvirate.”

“Yeah,” Xander said, discomfort tingeing his face. “Why there, again?”

“Andrew said there’s a consecrated circle beneath it. We can use its power to boost our own circle,” she explained. “I’ll
need you and Spike to guard us. Chances are, things will get way crazy once the doors start opening.”

William crouched before her, his hands clasped on either side of the chair. “Think, Dawn. There must be another way.”

She lowered her eyes.

“There isn’t,” Giles said, his tone incisive and clear. “Dawn, we’ll get started straight away.”

William rounded on Giles. “
Et tu, Rupert? Dawn is the Slayer’s sister. She’d never agree to this.”

Giles raised his miserable eyes to meet William’s. “She would,” he said. “It’s a plan worthy of her.”

William prowled the ground between them like a DA before the jury. “So that’s it, then?” he growled. “You lot are going to
stand by and let this happen?”

“No,” Willow said, intercepting him. “We’re going to help,” she said to Dawn over his shoulder. “Anything you need, you got
it.”

Xander scrubbed his face with his hands. In the deep shadow of the corner, Thellian watched Dawn with his patent
implacability. Rachel placed her hands on Giles’ shoulders and sighed, resolute.

William dropped to his knees at Dawn’s side and spoke into her ear. He said, “And what of your boy?” he whispered. “The
one you cherish so much. What would he say to this?”

Tears welled in Dawn’s eyes. She stared forward, trying not to blink. “He knows the price,” she said.

“Does he?” William shouted. Dawn flinched, as did everyone. She gripped the edges of her seat with rigid fingers. “Does he
get that this plan means you spilling every drop of your blood. All of it!”

William got up again. “Do you understand how agonizing it will be as she bleeds? How she’ll weep the weaker she gets, how
she’ll beg for release, and will you be the one to deny her?” William pointed at Maya, who strangled a sigh and averted her
eyes. He pointed to Willow then. “Will you?”

Tears streaked Willow’s face, but he knew the redhead wouldn’t relent. William said, “No. To you, spilling blood’s a mere
trifle, so long as the ends are justified.”

“Oh, stop it!” Giles cried. “We’ll have no lectures on carnage from William the Bloody. We all wish there was some other
way, Spike, but frankly this is the best for which we can hope.”

William looked gutted. He muttered, “The best?”

Dawn stood, finally. She laced her arm in his, and looked up into his face. “I’m the Key,” she said. “I’ve always been the Key.
Do you think that just went away when Buffy defeated Glory?”

William’s jaw clenched.

“It didn’t. I’m still the Key. But I control the power, now. I can close the doors and bring our Buffy back,” she said, her blue
eyes luminous in the basement’s half-light. “Isn’t that what you want?”

“Don’t do that,” he said in a harsh whisper. “Don’t play off my weaknesses for your own ends. That’s what
they do,” he
said, indicating the others with a tilt of his head.

Dawn looked down. “Please, Spike. I need to do this.”

She felt the tension in his body, the evidence of his internal war. He’d promised to protect her, a promise he’d made to
Buffy years before…

“Buffy would not agree to this,” he said again.

“Buffy’s not here,” Dawn said.

William reeled from her and slammed his fist into the wall. In a flash he was up the stairs and out of the basement.

“Spike!” Dawn called after him.

“No, let him go,” Xander said.

Dawn drew her breath and attempted to exorcise her doubts, which had been present but less so until Spike stirred them to
the surface. Her knees felt weak, but she managed to return to her chair before collapsing. She peered around the
basement, not at the others, but at the sleeping bag that had been jostled aside to make room for their meeting, and the
organza floor pillows where one day earlier she’d lain with Andrew and dreamed while…

“…we gather supplies for the location spell,” Willow was saying. “We’ll have to amplify it with essence of sea serpent to get
the power we need. Do you think they have that in the Council’s supplies?”

“Oh, and some Kostzchie anti-venom, too?” Maya put in. “For Connor.”

“Yeah,” Xander said. “He’d be valuable in the final fight.”

Maya glared at him. He shrugged and mouthed, “What?”

“Um, we should have it, yes,” Giles said, removing his glasses. “Getting there could prove tricky. We’ll need to check the
news to establish the current state of the city.”

“I’ll do that,” Rachel said, taking her leave.

“I volunteer for the actual supply getting,” Xander said. “It’ll be like full-contact shopping.
The Price Is Right meets
American Gladiator.”

Dawn listened to them, feeling disconnected, drifting like a balloon in the updraft of a distant yet powerful storm. When
Thellian addressed her, the others either didn’t hear him or chose to ignore him, though Dawn doubted that could ever be
the case.

“I knew a vampire once,” he said. “A young Jewish man studying to become a Rabbi. The entire town took him in, sheltered,
fed and protected him. He was an eloquent Talmudist, and very devout. A holy man, this vampire.”

Dawn nodded slowly. “Why are you telling me this?”

He went on, while the others continued chattering as if Dawn and Thellian weren’t in the same room. “Merely an offer of
hope,” he said. “Vampires are often like humans. And while your plan is bold, I wonder if you understand what you’re
asking.”

A tear slipped down her cheek. “I understand the price,” she said.

Thellian watched her a moment longer, and then he left them. Daylight had arrived, and the approaching night would be the
darkest in centuries.



William stalked into the entry hall. He ran agitated hands through his hair.

“Went that well, huh?” Faith said. She stood in the seldom-used parlor. He knew she’d heard him come up from the basement
and was awaiting news.

He sneered. She nodded like she understood.

“How’s the boy?” he asked.

“Sleeping peaceful,” she said. She looked at Connor and wrung her hands. “Has me wigged.”

“Yeah.”

“Gotta cigarette?” he asked.

She patted her pockets. “Fresh out.”

He swore. “Way of, innit?”

“You said it.” Faith went back to the couch and dropped herself on its edge so that she fit within the curve of Connor’s
body. “Tiny got all big-like, huh? You gonna share her plan, or do I need to wait till Dumbledore spells out my part of it.”

William stared absently at the crate that lay unopened like a Christmas gift in the hallway. After a full minute of no response,
Faith said, “You okay?”

“Yeah,” he said, sounding the opposite thereof. “Yeah. Faith,” he turned to her, a devious light in his pale eyes. “I need a
favor. You’ll have to keep it mum from the rest.”

Faith’s lips pulled into a sly grin. “You got it,” she said. “Spill.”

William went into the parlor where in hushed tones he and Faith came up with a plan of their own.



Hours passed. Dawn went to bed, and it wasn’t lost on William that she went to Andrew’s room to sleep. Rachel checked
news reports to find that London was still locked down, and that officials ordered citizens into their homes so that the
National Guard could secure the city, to which Giles quipped, “Good luck with that.”

Afterward, Giles followed Dawn’s example and put himself to bed.

Maya and Willow set to work, preparing what they could for the ritual and location spell.

They determined Xander’s chances of getting to the Council in one piece would be greatly improved if William went along.
Much as Xander (and Xander’s big-honk black eye) didn’t want it, he had to agree that having an escort with super-healing
powers did have appeal.

Xander found him in the garden, perched on the picnic table, staring out into the enormously lush and improbable jungle that
had grown there since August.

Stepping onto the flagstone patio, Xander said, “When did this place turn into
Land of the Lost?”

William didn’t acknowledge him. Xander came alongside the table, careful to keep out of arm’s reach, just in case. Spike was
prone to unexpected outbursts. See above Re: black eye.

Standing there, Xander grew aware of what a majorly bad idea it was to ask for William’s help, or even talk to him, since he
was out-of-his-head enraged at them for siding with Dawn. Just as Xander had decided to go back inside and beg Faith’s
help, William turned his attention to Xander.

“You never have to pay, do you?” he asked, his voice cold as a razor blade. “Always stand aside, let the others pay the
price.”

Xander chuckled darkly. “You’re forgetting the eye I lost to Caleb,” he said.

Spike returned his gaze to the garden. “No I’m not,” he went on. “That’s your hubris made real, Teflon Boy. Easy price next
to what Tara gave. And Anya, for that matter. You were there, same as them, the day Red brought Buffy back. Yet here
you stand, ready to fetch and carry like the yapping dog you are.”

“Hey!”

“Willow, too,” Spike said. “You’ve gotten off light so far, but magic always has a price.”

Xander came around the table to stand in front of him. “I lost Anya!” he yelled. “How’s that for pay up…?”

“You didn’t lose her,” Spike said. “You chucked her aside. And then your meddling with Dawn and Andrew has cost…”

“Hey, he was the one who walked!”

William leapt from the table, snatching Xander by the collar. “She loved him,” he snarled, pulling Xander’s face close to his.
She loved him, and you tried to break that. You failed to see what mattered most, and now she’s concocted this fatalistic
plan.”

“Like that’s my fault?” Xander shot back. “She would have landed on this idea sooner or later, Spike. It’s probably best that
it’s now. You’ve seen what’s happening out there.”

Spike released him with a shove.

“I… I didn’t mean it like that,” Xander said, rubbing his neck.

Spike scoffed. “All happens for a reason, does it?” he said bitterly. “There’s blood on your hands and you’ll have to square
with that. And if you don’t, I’ll make certain you do. You’re a sodding excuse for your skin to exist, and it’s all you’ve ever
been. If Andrew was here and not unconscious in some hospital bed, they might have found a way. At least they would’ve
had something to sustain them...”

Spike covered his eyes with the heels of his hands and stomped away.

Xander hovered, unsure how to respond, and decided, finally, that he couldn’t change Spike’s mind, however wrong-headed
he might be. One thing was plain – Spike wouldn’t be helping him get to the Watcher’s Council. Not in this state of mind.

As Xander turned to leave, Spike said, “She’ll never forgive you for this.”

Xander paused, his hand on the doorknob, a knot in the back of his throat. That, at least, was fair. “I know,” he said.

Xander opened the door.

“I’m not talking about Dawn,” Spike said. Xander stopped on the threshold, thinking if not Dawn, he must be talking about
Maya.

Then Spike dealt the fatal blow, the one Xander had failed to consider.

“I’m talking about Buffy,” Spike said.

The weight of it settled on Xander like a lead vest. He went into the Flat with the heavy knowledge that if Dawn’s plan
failed, they would most likely die in horrible, painful ways as Hell burst its floodgates and washed everything they loved away
in a wave of filth and destruction. If it succeeded, Dawn would be dead, and Buffy would hunt them down and kill them, which
- to Xander - would be so much worse.
.home.
.acknowledgements.
.awards.
.links.
.contact.

Submit a Review
.Chapter Index.

Anywhere Out
of This World

Blood, Pressure
The Drawing Board
All's Well
Anywhere Out of
This World
Mourning Sickness
Welcome to Hell
Relative
Matters of Time  
& Fishes
International Calls
Empty as Houses
Lusty Wrong Feelings
Enthralled
Thanksgiving
Seduced
Innocents Lost
Burn
Flashback
Not A Chance In Hell
Empty Rooms
Two Roads Diverged
Starfall
Blindsided
Not Her Own
Outta Here
The Valley of the
Shadow of Death
Comes the Rain
Smoke and Mirrors
Drawn to You
Team Angel
By Fire Reborn
Salvage
Ashes to Ashes
Life Is...
With A Little Help
Appearances Deceiving
Familiarity
Sweetness
Not All Who Wander
That Old Black Magic
For Lorne
Drawn Together
Lost to Sand
Fall of Triumvirate
Parallel Lives
The Lovers
Avenger
Double Cross
Pursuit
Ripper's Girl
Pandemonium
Negative Space
Raveled Threads
Asunder
Human Hands
Singular
Fragmented
Symmetry
Plans
Rogue Squadron
Legends
Mea Culpa
Things Unsaid
Home Sweet Gone
.next chapter.