As her mind became more clear and focused she noticed that the demons behind the two at the door trying to get into the room were backing away. As Spike killed one of the two he was fighting the other one backed out of the door. Spike stood motionless for several moments waiting for the next rush on the door. When it didn't occur he moved to the doorway and saw that the demons were withdrawing down the hall. His head whipped suddenly in her direction until he was looking directly at Buffy and could see that her eyes were open. He let a big sigh out as he dropped the sword to the floor. He reached down and pulled the dagger from his leg. Buffy could see the blood as it oozed out of the wound. Slowly he limped over to the chair next to the bed and sat down tiredly. His face morphed back into normal as he shook his head from side to side. He sat there looking at Buffy without saying anything for several minutes. When he finally spoke his voice was so low and raspy that she had difficulty hearing him say "Until the End of Time Buffy, Until the End of Time".
***********
Vampires had been at the door twice during the night and only the continuous use of the cleansing spell had kept them outside of the Magic Shop. More fires had been seen in the night sky. A police car had raced down the street at one point with its lights on and sirens screaming. When they rushed to the window they saw that whoever was driving it was sideswiping parked cars up and down the street. A couple of demons were seen walking out in the open heading east. After the sun was fully up they noticed some people walking around as if they were in a daze. Willow had opened the door and tried to motion them to come inside but they ran away instead.
Tara was performing the cleansing spell again to protect the shop. They all knew it was no longer possible for them to go back out and try to work their way to the crypt. It would have taken baskets of the powdered ingredients to clear the way, they barely had enough to keep the shop free of the emanations, and then only for a day or two more. Because it was taking larger and larger amounts of the ingredients to keep the shop cleaned Tara was surprised when halfway through the spell the smoke turned white. She spoke the three words of magic and the smoke spread quickly around the room with a very strong scent of new mown grass. All feeling of any residue emanations was instantly gone and for the first time in over a week everyone felt back to normal. The shock of the change stunned everyone into silence.
Tara quickly grabbed up the smudge pot and the bags of ingredients and rushed out the door. In front of the shop she started the cleansing spell again using large amounts of the powder. It only took a couple of minutes for the smoke to turn white and for Tara to say the three magic words. The smoke spread quickly through the air taking the strong scent of new mown grass with it. Everyone had looked at her in surprise when she rushed out the door. When the spell acted again so quickly they all understood, Buffy was awake, or dead.
Everyone jumped into Xanders car, sitting on each other's laps when necessary and drove quickly to the cemetery. On the way they noticed people in their yards and on the streets looking around as if they had just woken up from a nightmare. They heard the sound of police and fire sirens for the first time in days responding to emergencies around the town. The radio in the car suddenly stopped broadcasting static and a shaken announcer started broadcasting that people should stay calm and stay at home until the authorities could make a report on what had been happening.
When they got to the gate of the cemetery, as they drove through it, they saw three demons at a distance wandering around but moving off away from them. Xander drove across the grass clipping a couple of tombstones in his haste. When he pulled up at the door to the crypt everything was quiet. They got out of the car and entered the crypt. Three dead demons were lying on the floor near the open hole leading down below. There was also a large amount of dust around the hole, several inches, which may have indicated dead vampires. The ladder had been pulled away from the hole so Xander lowered himself through the hole and hanging from his fingertips dropped to the level below. It took him a couple of minutes to locate the ladder and set it up again. The others hurried down the ladder to join him. As they worked their way down the hall using a flashlight to light the way they discovered the bodies of over a dozen demons. At the doorway to Spikes vault they had to climb in over the bodies of two demons blocking the way. As they gathered looking over at the bed they were actually afraid to go any closer.
They could see Spike sitting in a chair next to the bed with his head bowed down. There was blood on the floor around him but they couldn't tell if he were near death or sleeping, if he was dead he would have turned to dust. Tara rushed forward to see what aid she could give him, the rest followed her. As they neared the bed Buffy opened her eyes and looked at them with a small smile on her lips. It wasn't much of a smile, but it was real and they could feel the love behind it. Smiles broke out on all of their faces.
Dawn hurried around the bed and climbed up on it carefully and crawled across it far enough to where she could take Buffy's hand in hers. As she leaned over Buffy she kissed her lips and face, tears were running down her face, but they were the tears of joy. Willow was crying unashamedly as she moved next to the bed to take Buffy's other hand and leaned over the bed to kiss Buffy also. Giles was crying and had to take his glasses off to wipe his eyes, he wasn't ashamed of his tears and didn't try to hide them. Xander had turned to Anya and as she held him he cried into her shoulder. Anya had tears in her eyes too and let them flow. Tara had determined that Spike was going to be all right and as she looked over at Buffy, tears ran down her cheeks, but she was smiling beautifully.
Spike opened his eyes then and realized that he was surrounded by others and gave a startled reaction. He realized almost immediately who they were and let himself relax. When he tried to move the pain made him winch and a small groan escaped. He looked over at Buffy and saw that she was looking at all of them as she moved her head around to take them into her sight and she was smiling. Tara found the ice-cooler she had given to Spike days earlier and found one bag of blood still in it. She brought the bag over to him and offered it to him, but he shook his head no and looked to Giles for help. With the help of Xander, Giles got Spike up out of the chair and out into the hall where he could drink the blood out of Buffy's sight. When they helped him back into the room all of the women were gathered around Buffy touching her gently.
Tara took the snow white crystal out of her pocket and held it over Buffy as she spoke the magic word. The crystal stayed white. Everyone let out a sigh of relief, Dawn and Willow started crying again, Giles had to wipe his eyes again, Xander choked on his relief as he moved over to the bed and reached out to touch Buffy. Giles helped Spike sit down in the chair again and he too moved over to the bed to touch her. It was like they all needed to touch her to be certain that she was all right at last. Buffy continued to smile her little smile at them as she too reached out to touch each of them in turn. Spike was the only one who didn't try to touch Buffy, but he kept his eyes on her face and her smile.
After a short while Giles took control of himself and the situation. Spike was still to badly injured and weak to help, so with Xanders help he started dragging all of the demon bodies down the hall to the foot of the ladder. When they also dragged the ones that Spike had previously dragged into one of the empty vaults there were twenty-one demons stacked on the floor. Counting the three on the upper level and the ones that Tara had reported dragging outside the other times she had been to the crypt they figured that Spike had killed over thirty demons in the past four or five days. That wasn't even counting the number of vampires he may have killed and turned to dust. They knew that once Spike was able he would help to get the demons bodies outside where they would disintegrate in a few hours in the sunlight.
Giles sent Xander to Buffy's house, first to make sure it was okay and that no one had burned it down or broken into it again. Second to see if there was any blood in the refrigerator. Even if it was a few days old it would be better than nothing and Spike needed it to recover. Xander was back in twenty-five minutes with two chilled bags of blood. While Xander was gone, Giles and Spike had been sent out into the hall while the women took the time to clean Buffy up. They were impressed that Spike had taken such good care of her, including emptying the urine bag from the catheter and keeping a fresh nutrient bag hooked up to her IV. Xander gave Spike both bags to drink; when he was finished he could stand and walk on his own again.
After a half-hour more of rest Spike had enough of his strength back that with the help of Tara and Anya he was able to carry the bodies of the demons up the ladder. Giles and Xander were in the upper level and dragged all of the bodies outside into the sunlight. Willow and Dawn had remained at Buffy's side and no one even thought of asking them to do anything else.
With the mess cleaned up for the most part they discussed what they should do next. It was plain that Buffy couldn't be moved yet and still needed care. Willow stated immediately that she would stay with Buffy. Dawn wanted to stay too, they all did. Giles told them that they couldn't all stay and that most of them would go back to Buffy's house. From there they could prepare food and water and bring it back to the crypt as needed. Spike grumbled about having his bed taken away again by a horde of women, but no one paid any attention. They knew that no one but Buffy was going to be in the bed, as she had been while he protected her and cared for her alone.
Willow and Dawn stayed at the crypt with Spike and Buffy. The rest went back to Buffy's house. Tara started cooking food immediately. They knew they couldn't go out for food, the town was still to disorganize for anyplace to be open. They turned on the TV and heard a report that some kind of psychosis inducing gas had escaped from underground caves and had covered the whole town and surrounding area for several days. The destruction and vague reports of monsters was credited to the effects of the gas. There were also reports of deaths and many injuries; a final count was in the process of being gathered. The National Guard had been withdrawn from the surrounding area and Red Cross trucks had already started arriving to give aid and comfort to the citizens of Sunnydale. Further news was promised when more was known.
**********
(Wednesday, Thursday, Friday)
Once Buffy had regained consciousness and started eating solid food she started to recover quickly. Willow and Dawn wouldn't leave the crypt and stayed with her constantly. Spike hung around in the background, but kept an eye on her too. The others came and went, as they needed to do. Dawn didn't have to go to school, the town was still to disrupted and the kids to traumatized for them to open. It was announced they would open again on Monday.
Xander went back to work, the company he worked for were doing clean up from the many fires and acts of vandalism. Giles didn't even attempt to open the Magic Shop, but he did have Anya doing a detailed inventory of everything in the shop and all of the supplies they had used in the past week. Anya was completely happy to be doing the inventory and not having to worry about the end of the world or Buffy dying. She hummed happily as she worked.
Tara stayed at home most of the time resting. She had expended huge amounts of psychic energy with all the cleansing spells she had cast and needed to rest. She was also cooking the food for all of them to eat. Giles was helping with the shopping and was spending a lot of time writing up his reports on what had happened for the Watcher Counsel. He still didn't know what had caused Buffy to develop her dark aura and didn't know what to put into his reports.
On Friday afternoon Buffy announced that she was feeling well enough to go home. She wanted desperately to take a bath and to sleep in her own bed, and to have a real toilet. They had taken the IV and catheter out as soon as she had started eating and could use a bedpan. Spike had emptied and cleaned the bedpan without a comment, but Buffy was embarrassed by him having to do it.
When Xander left work early and showed up at the crypt with his car, Spike gently picked Buffy up out of bed and carried her to and up the ladder. He held her in his arms with her head resting against his shoulder until Xander took her from his arms and carried her outside to the car where Spike couldn't go with the sun out. Before getting into the car with Buffy, Dawn hugged Spike, kissed him when no one was looking, and thanked him for caring for Buffy and protecting her.
Xander drove the car home and carried Buffy into the house. She insisted that he carry her straight to the bathroom. Dawn and Willow undressed her and helped her into the bathtub where they washed her hair and gave her a long hot bath. When they got her out of the tub they dried her off, helped her into a nightgown and helped her to her bed. She was so relaxed by the hot bath and feeling so clean she fell to sleep right away. Dawn went back to the bathroom to clean it up and take a shower of her own. Willow sat next to the bed and held Buffy's hand while she slept with nothing on her mind but peaceful dreams. Willow let the tears run down her face as she sat there and looked at Buffy's peaceful face. The love she felt for Buffy filled her heart and made her feel dizzy, but it also made her feel extremely happy. More than anyone else in the world she loved Buffy and she planned to tell her that as soon as she was back to health.
************
(Saturday)
Buffy stayed in bed with Willow, Dawn and Tara watching over her and taking care of her every need. Giles, Xander and Anya came over to visit with her and see how she was doing. She told them all that she was feeling better every minute and started asking them what had happened to her. They were all hesitant to tell her everything that had occurred and Giles had told her that they would tell her everything when she was better and on her feet again.
The investigation report had come out that morning, issued by the Mayor's Office and the Town Council. They were claiming that an unknown gas had escaped from underground caves in the area and had hung like a cloud over the town for a number of days. The gas had caused hallucinations, fits of rage and/or apathy in the population of Sunnydale. There were 93 bodies found; some in crashed cars and some in burned out buildings. Others had been found that appeared to have been bludgeoned to death by unknown persons. There were 27 found at the hospital that had died from lack of medical care when the hospital staff had wandered off leaving them alone. Hundreds of people had shown up after the gas had cleared at the hospital and at the Red Cross Aid Station with injuries that they couldn't explain how they had gotten.
There were also 132 people who were missing. Searches went out looking for them, it was presumed they had wandered off under the influence of the gas, but they were never found. There were 42 homes and businesses that had been burned to the ground, plus dozens of cars that had been set on fire. Hundreds of cars that had been parked on the streets had been damaged in one way or another, and the final count on property damage hadn't been totaled yet. The Mayor, Town Council, the Governor and representatives from the Federal Government had all declared that since the gas could not be blamed on anyone it was an "Act of God" and no one was at fault for the deaths and damages. The State and Federal governments had promised financial aid. Everyone was asked to stay calm, return to work and restore the town of Sunnydale to what it had been before this terrible accident occurred.
*********
(Sunday)
Buffy got out of bed, dressed, and with help went downstairs to spend the day on the couch resting. She was feeling much better, but wasn't back to normal yet. Willow hovered over her like a guardian angel taking care of her every need. Dawn, Tara and the others spent time with her too and she enjoyed the day with her friends. Spike stopped by after dark for a little while. Dawn wanted to go outside and talk to him alone, but he told her to take care of her sister and left without really talking to anyone. Shortly after he left Buffy said she was tired and went to bed.
**********
(Monday-Friday)
Using the money that he and Anya had received from the Watcher Counsel, Xander hired some men to help him and contracted to do clean-up on a couple of the business sites that had been burned out. He also applied for financial aid from the government to start his own business to help restore the damage done to Sunnydale. The local bank immediately advanced him money against the money he would get from the government and he started his own contracting business. By the end of the week he had his own business 'Xander Harris - Construction and Restoration', and a crew of twenty-five men working for him on four sites.
School opened and Dawn went back to classes. It was announced that because of all that had happened the past couple of weeks the school year would be extended to make up for all the lost time missed. The students were not at all happy to hear this, least of all Dawn.
Sunnydale University reopened and Willow and Tara returned to their classes. Buffy had insisted that Willow go to her classes and that she would be fine on her own. She had to promise not to do anything to tire herself out before Willow would agree.
Giles reopened the Magic Shop and because of all the tourists that flooded into town to see the place where the mystery gas had caused so many deaths and damage he was flooded with customers. In the one week he made more profit than he had ever made in a single month before. Anya was extremely happy to be working so much and raised the prices on a number of items to increase the profit margin. Giles didn't argue and gave her a raise.
Spike didn't come to the house all week. He contacted Giles twice late at night to let him know that he had been out patrolling in Buffy's place, but hadn't seen a single demon or vampire all week. They were apparently lying low somewhere because even 'Willy's Place' had closed for awhile due to lack of customers. Giles made an arrangement with a local meat packing company to provide Spike with all the blood he needed, but hadn't seen him all week either.
***********
(Saturday)
By Saturday Buffy was pacing the floor with pent-up energy and was telling everyone she was feeling 100% back to normal. To prove it she went to the Magic Shop and worked out for over an hour. Giles agreed that she was back to normal and fit to resume her Slayer duties. Although, he told her, since all the vampires and demons seemed to be in hiding there wasn't really very much she needed to do at the time. He told her that apparently with all the government and news media people still in town the word had gone out to leave them alone and not to draw attention to themselves. They both wondered who or what had the power to make them obey such an order.
***********
Everyone, except Spike, gathered at Buffy's house that night for a special dinner to celebrate her return to full health. Music was playing in the background and the smiles and laughter seemed contagious. Giles had brought several bottles of excellent wine to the party and Buffy even allowed Dawn to have half a glass to toast her health. The dinner was delicious and everyone thanked Tara for her efforts. Buffy sat at one end of the table with Giles at the other end. Willow sat to the left of Buffy, with Tara next to her. Dawn sat to the right of Buffy, with Xander and Anya next to her. The spot next to Tara where Spike should have been was empty. No one made any comment on the absence of Spike, but whenever Buffy looked in the direction of the empty place she felt a twinge of sadness. Giles had gone to the crypt to invite Spike to the party, but he hadn't been there, even though it had still been daylight when Giles had gone to tender the invitation.
When the dinner was completed and everyone had moved to the living room to continue the party, Buffy had gathered their attention and asked them to tell her all that had happened while she was unconscious and why she had been at Spikes crypt when she woke up and not in her own home and her own bed. She had heard the radio and TV reports and had read the newspaper stories about the strange gases that had caused so much trouble, but she knew there was much more to the story that she hadn't been told yet.
At first, no one seemed to know what to say, they all looked to Giles for guidance. Giles looked at Buffy in silence for over a minute before he took a deep breath and began to explain to her about her dark aura and what it had caused while she was unconscious. The others broke in at times to add some small details, but Giles was the one who did most of the talking. As he explained what happened, and how it had effected all the people of Sunnydale, Buffy's eyes got wide and she turned very pale. He explained that it was mainly through the efforts of Tara and her cleansing spells that things hadn't been worse than they had been. He also explained that the reason she had been taken to Spikes crypt was that, of all of them, Spike had been the least affected by her dark aura and was the only one who could be near her for any length of time without being overwhelmed.
When Giles finally finished, tears were running down Buffy's cheeks and her eyes were red and swollen. Dawn and Willow were on each side of her holding her around her shoulders and Xander and Tara were kneeling at her feet holding her hands tightly. Giles and Anya were standing directly behind Xander and Tara with looks of deep concern in their eyes. Giles was very concerned that he may have told her too much to soon and might possibly have pushed her back into a state of mind where the dark aura might emerge again. As they all tried to calm her and soothe her, Buffy cried quietly.
After fifteen long minutes, which seemed like hours of crying, Buffy took a deep breath and pulled her hand from Tara's to wipe her eyes. After several more deep breaths she looked up at the people that meant the world to her and thanked them for saving her. When she stood up everyone stood up around her and one by one she hugged and kissed each of them.
Buffy looked to Tara and asked her "Is there any chance that it might happen again? The dark aura thing, I mean?"
Tara looked back at her with a sad crooked smile. "I don't know Buffy" she replied. "I don't know why it happened in the first place. I don't know why it stopped. I just don't know."
Buffy looked to Giles to see if he might have an answer. Giles looked back at her with deep concern in his eyes and shook his head. "I don't know either Buffy. I've only read of something like this happening once before and that was hundreds of years ago and it lasted for years before it finally ended. I don't know if it was the same thing that happened to you or if it was something entirely different. I just don't know."
"I do" a voice from the other side of the room said angrily. As Buffy and the others turned quickly toward the voice they could all see Spike standing in the shadows near the doorway that led into the kitchen, his cloths were filthy and they could all see that he had been in a fight. "It's the bloody fuck'n Hellmouth people," he yelled at them. "The Slayer might have been the focus point, but she wasn't the cause. Some 'one' or some 'thing' used the Hellmouth against the Slayer and tried to kill her. But you can't point the Hellmouth at someone like a gun and pull a trigger. When it didn't kill her right away it kept on trying. But the Slayer wouldn't die, so the influence from the Hellmouth splashed over on the rest of the town."
"Spike" Buffy stammered out, "how do you know this? Are you sure?" she asked desperately.
"I'm sure Slayer" Spike responded with a tone of anger still in his voice. "And when I find the bloody bastard who did it, I'm going to rip his guts out and hang him from a bloody cross with em."
"Spike, how do you know this" Giles asked with a tone of desperation in his own voice? "Who told you someone tried to kill Buffy using the Hellmouth?"
"I've been under ground for the past three days and nights having conversations with some of the beasties from the lower regions" Spike replied with a tone of anger still in his voice. "It took some persuasion, but I got enough information out of them to know that what happened wasn't natural and it wasn't caused by the Slayer. Some 'thing', or some 'one', I'm not sure which, moved into the area a couple of months ago and has been casting spells and making sacrifices, trying to focus the powers of the Hellmouth. The one thing that the beasties were certain of was that the purpose of the spells and sacrifices were to focus enough energy to kill the Slayer. When the Slayer didn't die the power of the Hellmouth splashed back in all directions. One of the beasties claimed that the spellcaster was killed in the splash back, but I don't know for certain if that's true or not. But I plan to find out, and if the bastard is still alive it's going to beg me for death before I'm done with it."
Everyone stood looking at Spike not knowing how to respond to what he had just told them. Ever since the fight against Glory, Buffy's death and her return to life, Spike had fought next to them against all of Buffy's enemies. But listening to him talk about ripping out guts and killing someone reminded all of them that he was a soulless vampire that was in fact a demon. The fact that the chip in his head prevented him from harming humans made them forget what he really was, most of the time.
Seeing the looks of uneasiness on their faces Spike started swearing under his breath and turned from where he was standing and headed quickly for the backdoor of the house. He had just made it out the door and off the porch when Buffy caught up to him and grabbed him by the arm, stopping him. Spike yanked his arm free from Buffy's grasp and backed away from her a few feet. "What do ya want Slayer" he asked angrily.
"Spike" Buffy said quietly as she looked him in the eyes. Spike thought that he could actually see real warmth and concern in her eyes, but felt that he must be mistaken. "We were having a party earlier to celebrate my return to health. We tried to invite you, but you weren't in your crypt. If you want to, I'd like for you to join us now. I don't really know how much of a party we might still have, not after what we've all learned tonight. But you are invited, for whatever we do. I learned earlier, before you arrived, that the only reason I'm still alive is that you protected me when I was helpless. I also wanted you to know that by finding out the truth of what happened; you probably just saved my soul. I won't forget that Spike, ever."
Spike looked at Buffy and the anger faded from his face. A softness appeared in his eyes and a half-shy smile touched his lips briefly. "I'm not really dressed for a party Buffy," he said quietly as he gestured toward his filthy cloths. "But, thank you, for asking anyway." With a hand raised slightly from his side he made a little wave before he turned and walked off into the dark. Buffy stood there watching until she could no longer see any trace of him. She turned and walked back into the house with a soft smile on her lips.
***********