Author’s Note: Sorry for the huge hiatus but, unfortunately, my "wonderful" computer went all wonky, AGAIN!!! Grrrr! I had the chapter almost complete and I had to rewrite it AGAIN!! Thanks for the great feedback, which kept me going. I was almost thinking of just quitting, that’s how angry I was !!! GRRRR!

The words rang in his ears and as the entire world seemed to fade into nothingness, they remained protected from the surrounding chaos in an invisible cocoon. He felt her heart slam against his chest and for an instant he thought it was his own, brought back to life by the words he had waited an eternity to hear from her.

As she broke the bruising kiss she stared down into his glassy eyes; her breathing coming in shallow and urgent gaps.

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Giles and Willow watched from afar as the madman howled at the full moon; pale white hands, tracked with a maze of blue veins, clutched his throbbing head as he stumbled and mindlessly zigzagged his way through the street.

"He’s walking away from the Foris Caliga. We have to get him closer to it." Giles noted as he realised the pulsation of the circle was getting wider and wider by the minute.

Willow remained frozen, as if entranced by Ethan’s soaring screams.

"Willow!" Giles shouted snapping the redhead out of her daze. "The Foris Caliga," he continued pointing to the growing light. "It’s unstable. We have to hurry."

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Slowly, the dull sound of punching and kicking combined with short gasps of pain seeped into his ear and consciousness came crashing down on him along with a throbbing headache. His eyelids seemed to hold the weight of the world, but eventually he managed to open them. He was greeted by the sight of Dawn back kicking a vampire while simultaneously smashing her fist into another one’s deformed face. As the memory of what had happen earlier came back to him, Xander scanned the room, looking for any other enemies. Soon enough, his gaze feel over a third vampire, the same who Xander had seen grabbing Dawn from behind. He was now laying unconscious on the floor, a few feet away from where the battle was ensuing. When his eyes drifted back to Dawn, he found her in a much less favourable situation than just seconds before. One of the vampires had managed to grab a hold on her and now held her in place while the other stumbled to his feet and walked towards her.

"Party’s over, darling." He hissed as his hands slithered behind her neck and violently yanked her head back, successfully exposing the tender skin that covered her jugular to his sharp teeth.

"Back off!" Xander ordered as he stumbled to his feet and limped his way towards Dawn.

"Xander!" Dawn whispered breathless from the fight.

"And hence, sleeping beauty awakes." The vampire who had been closing in on Dawn’s neck mocked, turning to face the barely standing young man.

"Let. Her. Go." He breathed the words between clenched teeth.

"Or what?" the vampire continued in an annoying tone.

Xander carefully closed the distance between himself and Dawn, jumping over the seemingly unconscious body of the leader of the gang.

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As the pulsating light grew, it appeared to climb the walls of the surrounding buildings as well as crawl over the wet asphalt of the street, consuming everything in sight.

Willow felt her heart leap to her throat as the chaos and disorder built up around her; the demons grew more and more restless and violent, destroying and pillaging, attacking and devouring. Taking a deep breath, she forced her mind to block out the horror around her and her heartbeat to slowdown to an acceptable rate.

"You can do this!" she coaxed herself as she followed Giles.

As the two approached the raving lunatic, the librarian came to a complete stop causing Willow to bump into him.

"Giles, what’s-" The redhead wasn’t able to finish her sentence as she looked over Giles’ shoulder and saw it.

In the middle of all the confusion one of the many demons which surrounded them bumped into Ethan. In a mater of seconds the demon was reduced to a oily puddle in the middle of the street.

"Giles?" Willow asked wide-eyed, her hands shaking uncontrollably.

"Kahlan demon." Was the librarian’s simple answer, but before she could ask him he explained: "He has the features of all the demons that were consumed by the Foris Caliga. He must have taken a Kahlan demon. They have the ability to transform any living creature into…" he trailed off as it became clearly obvious what was the effect of a Kahlan demon’s touch. "We can’t touch him."

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Spike and Buffy remained silent, oblivious to the rain, the mayhem and the rapidly approaching circle of light.

"Buffy…" his voice was barely audible, a dreamy look pooled in his eyes as he stared up at her.

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"We can’t touch him? How are we suppose to get him… you know… over there?" Willow pointed toward the growing light.

Giles remained silent, pondering what to do while Ethan continued to move through a melting crowd, away from the Foris Caliga.

"Giles?" Willow asked once more, but he seemed to be out of it. "Do you think we can get a pole and just shove him towards the light?" When she saw the disapproving look on the ex-watcher’s face, she added with a bowed head: "Ok, shutting up now."

"Willow, you are going to have to push him."

"What?" she asked in a frightened tone, looking up at him. Seeing no change in his expression she continued in a martyred tone: "You’re right. I think I should. I’m the one who should do this, after all I tried to-"

"What are you talking about, Willow?" it was Giles’ turn to look confused.

"Well, pushing involves touching and touching, in this case, involves turning into a big pool of yucky…yuck on the street." Willow explained with a deep dramatic frown over her eyebrows.

" Willow, I think you’ve been spending a little too much time with Xander. You’re picking up his knack for martyrdom and over-dramatising. I was talking about magic. Do you think you can do it?" Giles explained giving her a light tap on the shoulder.

"Oh-oh!" she inhaled sharply and a huge smile settled over her lips as a wave of relief washed over her. "You want magic. I’m you’re girl." And she stood there, grinning wildly at the librarian.

"Well… Now would be a good time to have a go at it, seeing as the Foris Caliga doesn’t seem to be slowing down. We are a little short on time." Giles almost begged as he tilted his head slightly.

"Oh, magic, right." And she turned around to face the zigzagging madman in the middle of the street.

As she began chanting a strong breeze passed by her, causing her wet and heavy hair to float in the air. Slowly, she raised her hands, arms stretched out in Ethan’s direction, eyes closed, mouth humming in a long forgotten language.

Ethan’s deformed body rose among the crowd and hovered over it. It slowly moved towards the circle of light and Giles seemed to sigh in relief, but suddenly, it stopped its smooth motion and the madman was thrown to the floor. Next to him, Willow’s worn out body tumbled to the hard asphalt. In a blink of an eye, Giles was on his knees, next to her.

"Willow! Are you alright?" he asked as he pushed her wet red locks away from her pale face.

She blinked hard and with shallow breath whispered: "I can’t do it.".

"Thought you’d get rid of me that easy, hey Ripper old friend?" A cold shiver trailed down Giles’ back as he heard the inhuman voice from close behind him.

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"Let her go." Xander repeated, this time in a stronger, more confident tone.

Dawn struggled against the strong grip of the vampire, kicking and pushing him, but failing miserably at it.

"I said-" he was cut off as he felt five cold fingers clutch his throat making him gasp.

"Don’t you just love it when food develops a sense of heroism?" he heard a sharp hiss from behind his hear.

The two other vampires let out an idiotic laugh as the leader continued to squeeze the life out of the young man.

"Let…" Xander gasped as he struggled to breathe.

"Ah-ah-ah." The leader singsang, shaking his head before violently gripping Xander’s hair and yanking it back, exposing the young man’s neck. "Eat now, act brave later." He hissed, opening his mouth in a gruesome grin before burying his sharp teeth into Xander’s rapidly pulsating jugular vein.

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Giles could distinctly hear the sluggishly approaching footsteps, while he remained knelt next to a worn out Willow.

"Did you really think you could beat me?" the anger grew in the madman’s voice as he took one last step and hovered over the knelling librarian, who remained with his back turned to him.

Willow eyes glowed with fear as she looked up at Giles’ equally scared ones. Her left hand instinctively grabbed his as she watched Ethan’s arm reaching for the librarian’s shoulder for a deadly touch.

"ANSWER ME!!!" the ungodly scream cut through the thundering sky as Giles felt Willow reassuringly squeezing his hand.

As the two exchanged an accomplice look they knew what they had to do. In a blink of an eye, just as Ethan’s fingers grasped the librarian’s shoulder, Giles moved out of the way and in one last effort, Willow brought her hands up, pointing towards Ethan. Powerful electric currents, born in her shoulders, travelled down her outstretched arms and shot out of her fingers hitting the madman and propelling him into the growing brightness.

A thunderous silence took over the entire town as the ball of light stopped pulsating for a second before exploding.

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Spike gazed at her for what seemed an eternity. As his hand reached up to push back a rebellious string of soaked blonde hair, something broke through the barrier of silence that surrounded them. It was a faint echo when it reached his ears:

"Answer me!!"

Suddenly, the world of chaos which had been pushed back into a murky, slow-motion background came rushing back at him and the first thing he saw was the rapidly approaching circle of light. He had seconds to react as his gaze drifted from the brightness to her, laying on top of him, still oblivious to the danger. Instinctively, he pushed her off of him, away from the Foris Caliga.

Reality seeped in as she saw the fear in his eyes. "Why is he scared?" she asked herself as a frown settled over her forehead. She wasn’t able to answer her own question as she felt herself being propelled across the street. She hit the hard asphalt with a pang, her mind still in a daze as she looked up to see him being engulfed by the exploding brightness.

"SPIKE!!!!"