Author's Notes: The timeline is a little out of whack, but canon does make an appearance every once in a while.
Author's Notes Two: Thank you to everyone who has so patiently awaited the next part of this fic. I know it's been a long time coming.
Summary: The group recoils in shock at what Glory has done.

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Part Twenty-One

"Buffy, you have to wake up! Buffy!" Willow screamed frantically. Buffy stared vacantly ahead, giving no indication that she had even heard Willow speaking to her.

Willow clasped Buffy's head and stared intently into her eyes. "You don't get to do this Buffy," she said in a deadly voice. "I know you have lost people, and you are hurting, but dammit Buffy so have I. That bitch of a hellgod took Tara from me, and she has taken your sister. It may be too late for Tara, but it is NOT too late for Dawn. Now snap out of it, and do your job. I'll be damned if I'm fighting this thing alone!"

A tear trickled down Buffy's cheek as her forlorn gaze focused on her friend. "It's all my fault Willow. Glory got Dawn because I was weak, and now she's going to die. I've killed my sister..."

"Buffy...you have to tell me what happened. It's not too late. We can still get Dawn back. Just tell me everything that happened."

"I was so lonely, Will. I felt like I was the only person standing against a world of evil. So...so I decided I would just...let loose a little. I waited until you were all asleep. Then Ben came over..."

"Ben? The hospital intern? What does he have to do with any of this?" Willow asked, a perplexed look on her face.

"I..I don't know. It's all like a bad dream. Ben and I were...you know...releasing some pent up energy, and suddenly Glory was on top of me, asking how it felt to be screwed by a god. She didn't come from anywhere...she just appeared, and Ben was gone. It's...it's almost like they are the same person..."

"Glory and Ben the same person?" Willow exclaimed.

Buffy fixed a blank stare on Willow. "What does Ben have to do with this, Will? We need to be focusing on Glory."

"Buffy, you just told me Ben and Glory are the same person! What is with you?"

"Oh, yeah...my dream. I'd almost forgotten," Buffy said in a spacey voice.

Willow rushed to find a piece of paper. Quickly she scrawled down the message "Ben and Glory are the same person." Even as she wrote, she could feel the memory trying to slip out of her mind. Holding the paper in front of her, she fixed her eyes on it. Slowly a black film covered her eyes. "Remember," she commanded. The letters on the page glowed like fire for a moment; then the letters flew from the page and glowed just as fiercely on her eyelids. She walked over to Buffy and repeated the procedure.

"Oh my God! Ben is Glory!" Buffy exclaimed. "I...oh God...I let him touch me. I let *her* touch me! I feel so...so dirty." Buffy crumpled to the floor and began to sob, filled with shame at what she had done.

Willow grabbed Buffy by the hair and yanked her to her feet. "Now is NOT the time. You can wallow in self-pity later. Right now we are going to get ready to fight. You will be strong, and I will be strong. Perhaps if we are strong together we stand a chance. Do you got me?"

Buffy nodded mutely and together they made their way down the stairs. They were met halfway by Xander and Anya, who were rushing upstairs to see if everyone was ok.

"Willow...is everyone up here ok? Where's Dawn?"

"Glory was here. She killed Tara, then kidnapped Dawn and Spike." Willow reported this information as if reading from a newspaper. No emotion was in her voice.

"Oh, God Wills. I'm so sorry." Xander pulled Willow into a tight hug, which Willow tolerated but did not reciprocate. Finally Xander let her go, trying to hide the tears forming in his eyes.

"So...what are we going to do?" Xander asked, awkwardly releasing Willow from his embrace. "Obviously Glory has some strong mojo going. Whatever that light was, it made the whole house shake."

"I don't think the light came from Glory," Buffy said softly. "Glory was in my...Glory was attacking me when it happened. She was thrown across the room by the blast. I think whatever it was came from Dawn."

"From Dawn? Why would you think that?" Willow asked.

"Because when I went into the hall, Spike had just been thrown through the door to Dawn's room and halfway through the wall outside, and Dawn didn't seem to have been touched by it at all."

"We need to research," Xander said, "figure out what this stuff is."

"We don't need stupid books...we need to find Dawn!" Buffy yelled.

"Calm down Buffy! We'll find her...we just need to focus," Willow said. "Has anyone called Giles?"

"I'll call him," Anya said. "Maybe he has some books with information. He is good with information."

"Good," Willow replied. "We will need his help to fight Glory. We need all the help we can get."

"Wills, I hate to ask this, but what should we do with Tara's bod...with Tara. What should we do with Tara?" Xander asked.

"We can't really waste time with the police right now. I...I'll take care of her." Willow walked over to Tara's prone form. Her head was turned at an odd angle, and blood trickled out of the corner of her mouth.

Gently, Willow knelt down and brushed a strand of hair from Tara's face. For a second her face crumpled as if she was about to lose it. Her face a stony mask, she stood up and backed away from the body. "Levitate," Willow commanded. "Come." Slowly Tara's body rose from the ground and began to follow Willow. Willow took her outside into the Summers' backyard. Quietly she began to chant. At first it seemed like there was no effect, but gradually Tara's body began to glow with an inner light, her skin becoming translucent until her body burst into thousands of fairy-like clusters of glowing light. The lights swirled around Willow, caressing her body and weaving through her hair.

Willow floated into the air, spinning in the light as if she were dancing. For a second, Tara was almost alive again. But the moment was all too brief. She returned to the ground, and the light began to recede from her. A tear trickled down Willow's face. "I commend you to your rest, my love." At her words, the lights gathered tightly together once more, forming a fire-like image of Tara. The figure lightly kissed Willow's lips before exploding like fireworks. Some of the lights sank into the ground, glowing brightly before disappearing. Some raced into the sky to become one with the stars. A single spark of light remained, floating in front of Willow. Slowly it settled on to her forehead between her eyes, absorbing into her skin.

"I'll be with you always," a wind-like voice seemed to whisper.

Willow turned solemnly and went back into the house. Inside she was greeted by Giles, who had just arrived. Quickly, she apprised him of the situation. She also patiently took the time to imprint the fact that Ben and Glory were one in the same into the minds of each group member.

"My Lord, Ben is Glory," Giles mused. "Do you realize the implications of this?"

"What do you mean," Xander asked. "Besides it being of the weird and kinky, I don't see how it helps us."

"To be in this dimension, Glory had to take on a human form, that we know. But if what you say is true Willow, then Glory inhabiting Ben's body means that in addition to being part human, she is also part mortal."

"So if we kill Ben, we kill Glory!" Willow exclaimed.

"Hold on here," Xander exclaimed in a startled voice. "Before you two get all carried away with this little plan of yours, let me remind you this is a human life we are talking about. Who died and made you gods?"

"Xander, if the choice were just between Dawn and Ben, even then I would choose Dawn's life over his because I love her dearly," Giles explained. "But the fact of the matter is that the choice does *not* lie merely between Dawn and Ben. The fate of the entire world lies in the balance. Measured in those terms, one life seems insignificant."

"I still don't like it," Xander muttered. "Since when did we start calling *any* life insignificant?"

"You don't have to like it," Buffy replied. "When the time comes, I am the one who will have to fight this battle. I am the one who will have to live with it."

"For now, why don't we just focus on finding Glory? Perhaps it will be possible to defeat her without taking a human life. We can't know until the time comes. One thing is certain; we must find her quickly. From all that I have read, once she has opened the portal, there is only one way to close it..." Giles paused, unwilling to utter the words that could possibly condemn Dawn to death.

"What is it Giles? Whatever it is, we can deal with it. Just tell us," Buffy said.

"To...to open the portal, Dawn's blood must be spilt. Thus the converse is also true. To close the portal, Dawn's blood must cease to flow. For that to happen...Dawn...Dawn would have to no longer be living." Giles stared at the ground, unable to meet Buffy's gaze.

Buffy's eyes opened wide with shock. "I am NOT killing my sister," she yelled, her mind set. "Whatever happens, my sister is not dying because of me. And God help anyone else who even thinks of hurting her, because there won't be a place you can hide to keep me from you if you so much as touch a single hair on her head!"

"If the portal is open, all the hell dimensions will collapse into one. Earth will cease to exist, in which case your sister will die anyway, along with the rest of us. If you wish to prevent this from happening, I suggest we go about finding Glory before she can begin her ritual."

Giles and Buffy glared angrily at each other. Suddenly Willow clutched her stomach and doubled over in pain.

"Willow, what is it?" Giles asked, glad to have something other than Buffy to focus on.

"I...I felt something...something evil with a huge amount of mystical energy. It hit me like an icy knife in the stomach."

"Now that you mention it, I did feel a coldness settle over the room. You are more in tune with magical forces than I am at this moment, so perhaps the power of it impacted you greater than it did me." Giles mused, offering an explanation.

"But what do you think it is?" Anya asked.

Willow gasped and ran out the front door. Everyone followed her to see what was the matter. Outside they saw Willow standing in the front yard, staring up at the sky. Above in the distance, a mystical energy was forming, getting larger by the second. Out of it was pouring crackling energy as well as large, shadowy looking creatures.

"We're too late," Willow moaned.

To be continued....