*****

Timeline: This story starts in 2005

May 2000, Adam immobilizes an army of demons, vampires and ghouls. Within 3 months, He'd wiped out most of the initiative. Forrest and Graham joined with Riley in order to try to help the Slayer and Slayerettes defeat Adam.

September 2000, An Earthquake effectively destroys most of the town of Sunnydale. It is thought that somehow Adam invoked it.

February 17th, 2001, Buffy Summers, most powerful Slayer in history is killed after a year of constant battles against Adam. She died a warrior's death. Her body was never found.

March 2002, After a year of morning and hiding, the survivors of the Sunnydale Wars regroup in Los Angeles. Angel purchases a large warehouse with sewer access, and with the help of a groups of street warriors, helps gather the remaining friends. While both sides recover, they fortify the warehouse, and begin to plan for future battles.

July 2003, Giles discovers a prophecy that could guarantee their winning the war, however, part of the text is missing, and there will be a great cost. As his research indicated it will be several years before the prophecy goes into effect, he decides to keep it to himself.

March 2005, After numerous battles, Adam finds their strongholds and forces them to retreat to the tunnels deep under the city.

February 17, 2005, Our story begins.

*****
Part 1:

The day was going, and the darkened air
Was taking from its toil each animal
That is on the earth;
Canto II; Inferno, Dante

February 17th, 2004

I don't think any of us really had time to notice the changes. Granted it has been at least four years� I suppose we had to move on. Looking back, all I can recall is that we spent the first year after the death of the Slayer numb to everything save the constant battles. The second� well, all sides needed a reprieve� We lost Forrest and Amy early in the year. Two months later, Faith was released from jail, on good behavior� and probably because the Council had sent our Slayer's replacement to a newly discovered Hellmouth in Europe. Faith had changed, though. Deadboy had been right. Just don't tell him I said that.

"Duck!" Xander broke out of his mental recap and instinctively dropped to the ground to hear a whooshing sound zoom over his head and footstep run by him. He looked up in time to see a familiar bleached blonde figure practically walk up a tree as the dust of a former enemy dissipated behind him.

Twisting around, Spike hopped back down to the ground and walked over to help Xander to his feet. "You alright pet?" His cool hand surrounding Xander's a wee bit longer than needed. He gave the young man a once over, and frowned at the blood dripping slowly down his left cheek. Glancing around to see if they were needed immediately, Spike cased the chaos around him. Faith and Wesley, having once again taken the totem of slayer and watcher worked side by side. A few hundred yards further to the west Angel and Oz were holding their own against a trio of Keprack Demons. Off to the north, Giles stood guard, quickly dispatching Vampires, while Anya and Willow chanted and tried to close the glowing vortex. Considering that's where all the bloody demons seemed to be spewing from, Spike considered their `lazing about' a good thing� this time. Usually, he didn't like it when the girls came along on the `hunting parties, however archaic that may seem.

His attention focused back on Xander, though, when the younger man tried to step back. His breath hitched slightly, and Spike's eyes narrowed.

"What's wrong?" Ice blue eyes scanned the dark complected man for further injuries, his hand still resting on Xander's shoulder.

"Nothing much, you just squeezed the shoulder a bit hard. Don't worry about it." Xander caught Spike's gaze and held it. "I'm fine, Wil. Nothing a few aspirin and a years sleep won't cure."

"You're sure?" Spike kept eye contact as he absently brought his hand up to wipe away the blood at Xander's temple.

Xander nodded, and reached up with his own hand to grasp Spike's bringing it to his lips briefly and shocking them both, by kissing the pulse point in Spike's wrist, before letting go. "Um� " Xander coughed, "Yeah, positive." Blinking in slight shock that faded quickly into a shy sweet smile, Xander backed up a few steps. "I'm going to um, go, yeah, go� help Giles� that's it. Sure." Quickly he turned and jogged over to the northern point above the vortex and pulling out his composite bow, started taking aim at the vamps, exiting the vortex.

Spike watched him jog away. Stunned in to a stupid grin, she cocked his head, then shook it. "Finally figured it out, did he?" With a laugh, he brought the blood covered fingers to his nose and sniffed, smiled to himself, then wiped them on his shirt. "Alright then!" He stood and looked around and target a rather pathetic looking group of quasi demons. "Who's next!"

*****
Part 2:

At every turn it evaded us
like the identity of the third person
in the Trinity: the one
who spoke through the prophets
"The Bats"- Jane Kenyon

Willow battled to keep her eyes open while Giles stood a few feet away lashing out at anything that attempted to break into their circle. For hours she and Anya had sat inside the circle of protection trying to close the vortex. Each had exhausted their own resources, as well as Giles'.

"Did you try, the Renatrabu chant?" He tossed back at Willow over his shoulder, resting his sword arm for a moment by letting the blade pierce the ground near his foot. His muscles rippling with exertion, exhaustion and expectation�the night was still young.

"YES!" Anya shouted in frustration. The former demon practically snarled at him. "And all the derivatives there of!"

"Anya�" Willow chided quietly. They were all tired. And Adam's latest gift seemed never ending.

"Well," Anya pouted. "He keeps asking. I keep telling. "She shrugged and waved her hands about. Unfortunately, in her over-exhausted state her equilibrium was dismal, and she quickly lost her balance and tumbled down�falling out of the protected circle.

"Anya!" Willow shouted and lunged for her, in hopes that she'd catch her before she crossed the threshold or worse, erased the circle with her fall.

Several things happened all at once. Willow never really knew what order it all happened. When asked later, she'd grow very still, and then refuse to speak on it.

As she reached across the candles to grasp at Anya's tunic, her own sleeve caught fires and she jerked back with a shrill squeak. Giles whirled around just in time to see her batting it out.

"Oh no." Anya's tremulous voice breached his concern for Willow. As he turned to look at her, she rose, stepping out of the circle and reaching her hand out. Giles followed her gaze and noted Xander jogging toward them. Giles' eyes widened as he realized that there was something loping after Xander. Something rather large, and "Good lord� Xan-"

"Xander!" Anya screamed at he former lover as the 10-foot monster/demon slashed at the man's back. Giles could see the boy speeding up, but the creature was huge!

"Willow, get back in the Circle!" He shouted. "Get ready to close it, once we are there!" He looked around. It was suddenly must too quiet. Xander had turned around and started firing at the monster, Anya having rushed over to him, began chanting. Balls of fire bursting forth from her hands rapidly as it crept closer.

"Giles?" Willow quietly tugged on his arm.

"Willow," he hissed, "I said�"

"Where are all the other demons?

Giles looked around and took stock of the battlefield. Angel across the way, was helping Riley to his feet, both looked confused, as if their opponents has vanished into thin air. Faith was running toward the monster now attaching Xander and Anya, with Wes close on her heels. Giles turned and looked for Spike, only he was no where to be found. Odd.

"Is it getting lighter?" Willow asked as she pressed up against him."

"What?" he inquired confused.

"Lighter, it's getting lighter, oh goddess, Giles, the vortex, it's um� glowing, growing.. Doing the ing thing.."

"Bloody hell. Willow get to the circle! It's going to collapse and it just might try to take us with it� ANYA ANGEL everyone down!"

At their names, Anya and Angel both looked up. Angel caught Giles' frantic wave toward the vortex, and his eyes widened, heading into a run, he tackled Riley and brought him to the ground.

Anya shouted to Faith as the slayer slashed at the great hulking creature. Not heading Anya's warning the girl continued to beat upon her enemy. As the Light grew brighter, back-lighting the monster, Wesley pulled at Faith's sword arm and finally resulted in picking her up and carrying her to the edge of the field. He dumped her kicking form unceremoniously on the ground before collapsing next to he just in time for them both to shield their eyes as the vortex pulsed and then a massive wave of energy shot out from it in a 50 yard radius.

Solitude blanketed the battlefield, shrouding it in an ironic peacefulness.

*****
Part 3:

Life is very long

Cordelia limped back and forth in the small open room deep in the tunnels of the city. They'd been gone for hours. She hated being left behind, but Angel had been right. Her leg still needed to heal. Two months ago, when Adam has sent his army to flush them out of the warehouse, she'd almost lost it. Mobility was back, now, but she still couldn't move as fast as she needed to during a battle. Angel would worry. When he worried, he got distracted. She didn't want him dead.

She rested her head against the cold dank wall, unconciously flipping her long braid around so that she didn't mess it up. Raising a hand to her eyes, she rubbed the bridge of her nose. Would this ever end?

A Vision slammed into her as if in answer to her unspoken question.

Between the desire
And the spasm

Spike's grin as he watched Xander leave morphed into a snarl as a vampire started after Xander. Quickly running up to the bugger, Spike dusted him, then turned to battle with a couple of rather pathetic looking creatures. At least if Adam was going to sick them with endless demons, he could give them some that were worth the fight. Quickly he dodged a suprisingly well aimed blow and countered with a expert kick of his own, if he did say so. The droaning hum of the vortex had gotten louder, and suddenly the two purplish deamons he was fighting looked a eachother and then fled.

"Hey! Where ya goin'?" He lowered his fists and grinned. "Yeah, run away... all the better to hunt you with." He jogged off.

Between the potency
And the existence

Angel groaned. This was never going to end. Demon after demon. Had willow and Giles not casted a few 'protection spells' and taught them all some healing spells, they wouldn't have lasted this long.

"Angel!" Oz shouted at him from he left.

Quickly, Angel turned, and dispatched the vampire to his right and turned. Oz stood struggling to get some large hairy crature akin to a large rat, off of Riley. "Damn." Angel started to run over to help when he felt rather than saw the creature crawl out of the vortex. A Gorthrew. He'd run into them during his days as Angelus... This wasn't going to be pretty. Speeding up he went over to Oz. "Go and help Xander."

Oz nodded and the walked carefully around the perimeter of the field. His figure slowly morphing into his halfwolf/halfhuman form.

Angel snarled and morphed into his own demonic vissage. Riley had been holding his own, until the fuzzy rat thing had taken a bite out of his arm. Now he had the nasty animal grappled and was continuoulsy banging it's head with his own. Crude... but effective.

Taking his sword, Angel eyed the situation, the swung down, neatly slicing the rats head off, and spaying murky putrid blood all over both himself and Riley.

Riley kicked the creature off of him, and sputtered.

"I don't know, " *cough* "wether to thank you or not."

Angel chuckled then frowned as he glanced at the vortex. It seemed to be pulsing the light brightening and the intense hum becoming louder. "Thank me later. Fight now." He helped Riley up then they both moved toward the Monster attacking Xander. His vision caught Giles' voice as they approched.

"ANGEL ANYA, Everyone Down!"

Angel stopped to listen. Instantly another thought blasted though him. Intense pain shot though his skull and he staggered. Images flashed through his mind-- mere splashes of colour that mad no sense until he felt her presense, dispair tinged with fear and urgency. Gasping, Angel ran and tackeled Riley, taking them in a roll, he hooked his legs around those of the surprised young man, and tried to get them as far away from the vortex as possible.

Between the essence
And the descent

Spike came to an abrupt halt at the edge of the battlefield held in place by shock. "Xan--"

Falls the Shadow

The vortex surged.

For Thine is the Kingdom

The Monster Roared and Slashed out once more at Xander.

For thine is

Oz Lept into the air to intercept the Blow, sinking his jowels into the meaty arm of the Gorthrew demon, only to be tossed aside in a broken mass.

For Thine is the

"OZ!" Willow screamed in horror as Giles dived into the Circleto cover her, one foot still hanging over the edge of the circle long after the silence rested on them.

For Thine is the

Anya tried to race toward Oz, only to be stopped by Xander's grasp as he tried to pull her down and cover her. The pulse of the vortex engulfing the monster as they crashed to the ground. She struggled and beat him away as she sat up next to him before he could stop her.

This is the way the world ends

The spurting wave of energy shot out in it's 50 yard radius, cutting in half anything in it's direct path.

This is the way the world ends

The absense of sound pervaded the area that was once, a baseball field inthe middle of a small park. The young man rose gingerly from his prone position onthe floor and looked around him in horror. Bodies lay strew across the schorch and sodden grass. Beside him lay the darkhaired former demon... he swallowed. Or at least... gasping he turned away and looked behind him. The two mages lay intertwined-- collapsed inside the broken protection circle. He scanned further. Oz? No...god... A noise pulled him back and he turned back toward the center, when the vortex had once been.

Adam stood before him and smiled, then walked up to Xander.

"Did you enjoy my present?"

Xander swallowed his mind desperatly begging for oblivion. "P--present?

"Why, it's you aniversary present, for all of you."

"Wha-?" Xander stutterred in confusion, before remembering his earlier thoughts. The Slayer... it had been four years...Oh God.

"Happy Aniversary." Adam reached up and wrapped his hands around Xander's neck.

This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper
The Hollow Men - T.S. Elliot

*****
Part 4:

"And the rest is silence"
-Fitzgerald

Ughf� Gads. Who let the bloody truck run over me? Spike winced. His entire body hurt and there was this deafening sound surrounding him. Oh wait. No sound. Silence. Hell, that can't be good. He shifted and had to bite back a groan when he heard something near by. *What, come to finish me off? *

"� We should wake him." Wes murmured. "Nah, watcher man, let him stay unconscious a bit longer." Faith's voice wavered. "He- a bit more time won't matter." Wes looked down at her. "Yes. Quite right." He let his gaze travel across the field to where the others had gathered.

Angel, limping slightly, stood in the shadows directly across the way, about ten feet from where willow's protection circle had been. He alternated between watching over Willow as she patched up Giles and Riley, to placing his hand over his stricken face and rubbing his temples.

"Fang's not taking this very well."

"Well, they were close� ironically� and I think, well. He's probably worried about how Cordelia will take it."

Spike opened his eyes at that. The tender talons of trepidation crept over his undead heart as he turned his head to attempt to focus on the two talking near him. Faith and her Watcher were standing restlessly just at the edge of the clearing.

"Yeah." Faith signed and scuffed her foot in the ground. "I think Fang's got more to worry 'bout though, than Cordy."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, Blondie here's not going to take it well either."

"Really?" Wes said, attempt as a casual tone betrayed by exhaustion and concern etching his face as he turned to glance down at Spike. Spike's own gaze latched onto the Watcher's. His cold blue eyes widening as Faith continued to talk. Wesley stood stock still, watching as the vampire listened to the fate of his friends.

"Yup. They've� become close the past year or so. Ya'know?" Always fighting each other, an egging each other on." She paused thoughtfully. " Actually, I think it really started that time they got locked in that bomb shelter about 9 months ago? When Blondie here learned that weird pulse thing�" She trailed off and swallowed as she watched Willow rise from Riley's side. The witch walked over to where Oz had fallen next to Xander and stood there for a few moments before collapsing beside him. Heaving sobs shaking her shoulders. Giles and Angel both stood and started toward her.

Spike, sitting up now, looked alarmed and turned his face from Wesley's to their former battlefield. Turning back to Wesley, his eyes widened. Something's happened� somehow� bloody hell� The boy's name lay on the tip of his tongue and he looked up at Wesley a question in his eyes.

Wes merely nodded and whispered. "I'm sorry."

"No," his voice harsh and quiet, Spike stood. "No." He stated again with firmer resolve.

"Spike." Wes reached out a hand but too late. Spike dodged past him, his quick trot halted once he arrived where the little witch sat collapsed and sobbing-- Giles' arms wrapped tightly around her as if trying to take as much of her pain into himself.

Blood covered everything, and it wasn't merely demon blood, it was human. And something� Spike pried his gaze from the witch. The wolf lay in a broken heap to one side of her and to the other�

"NO." He dropped to his knees and pulled the dark-haired man from the ground. Xander's body lay covered with a splattering of blood, however upon further inspection, it looked to be Anya's blood, poor chit, cleaved in half by the directed energy pulse. Spike probed Xander's body, ignoring the exclamations and mutterings of Giles and Riley, both trying to tell him to let go. He couldn't bloody well let go! How was he supposed to let go of something he'd not even had the chance to have yet, damnit!

"Wil?" Angel said softly as he walked over and crouched next to his Childe. "No." The harsh and soft utterance spoken, Spike gathered Xander to him and began rocking back and forth.

The other's looked on in sorrow, their hearts breaking at the keening coming from the younger vampire.

*****
Part 5:

"Love is a madness. If thwarted it develops fast."
Mark Twain

Giles watched as Angel sat diligently next to his rocking Childe. They'd yet been able to pry Xander's body from him, and so Giles, Riley and Wesley had started the process of digging a small grave for their fallen comrades. A tradition begun unconsciously with the deaths of Forrest and Amy, their fallen ones were buried at the site of their deaths, cremated quickly, then their ashes scattered. Later a small memorial would mark the place so that the survivors could remember. Too many would be added to the list of the fallen one's tonight.

He glanced over at Willow where she helped Faith gather the branches and brush needed for the small pyre they needed. Goddess what if he had lost her too. As if knowing his thoughts, she looked up at him offering a small comforting smile.

"Wil?" Angel prodded quietly. "We need to prepare him." His Childe however merely shifted and turned his back more toward his Sire, still rocking the warm body in his arms.

Angel sighed and looked up at Giles.

"Angel, it has to be done. It's the boys wishes."

"I know." He looked over to where the girls had built the Pyre. They stood back while Riley and Wesley gently carried Oz over and lay him down. Willow standing over him as she chanted softly, igniting the body in a flash-fire that quickly turned it to dust.

Needing to go to his little witch, Giles left Angel to tend to his Childe as best he could.

Angel sighed deeply and rose. The others would need his support for Anya. Carrying Oz's broken body would have been tough, but at least he was in oe piece.

Spike felt the lack of Angel's presence the instant the older man stepped away, however, he barely acknowledge it as in his mind he kept chanting no.no.no.no. Something just wasn't right. He was still warm, he can't be gone. No.

"� Spike, you have to give him to us, now."

"You may have to fight him for it, Fang."

"Faith, "Angel snarled in exasperation, then he crouched down behind Spike and wrapped his arms around the younger vampire, and scooted up to also wrap his legs around him, trying to offer comfort to him� to sooth him so that the other could take Xandar away. "Come on Wil."

Spike snarled at him yet, he caught Angel's eyes, and held them long enough to communicate his need for help. Gripping Spike under his elbows, Angel helped him rise, still cradling Xandar. Together, they turned toward the pyre. Once Spike had his footing, Angel let him get a couple of steps ahead. About 10 feet from the pyre, the younger vampire paused and clutched his burden.

Angel walked over to him, and carefully took Xander from Spike. Once again, taking it upon himself to do what had to be done. Willow sobbed into Giles' arms as Angel took the last few steps to the pyre. A quiet sob hitched in Faith's throat and Wesley turned and walked away from the scene.

As Angel lay Xander down on the pyre he looked up suddenly, as if someone had called his name.

"Angel! Stop!"

Angel whipped around as did several of the others as Cordelia's voice carried across the field. She was trying to run across it, dragging her wounded leg behind her as if a life depended on it. Breathing heavily she made her way to Angel's side and took hold of his arm as she tried to catch her breath.

"Cor? What?" He steadied her and gave her a questioning look.

"Vision. Xander. Not Dead." She took a deep breath. "Don't Burn�. Please.."

*****
unfinished