Sister, Sister (Book Five, BTVS)

chapter 22 - Gift and Sacrifice

We were all at the Magic Box.

Willow, Tara, Anya, Xander, and I were sitting at the table, looking at books.

Giles was standing nearby.

Spike was sitting behind me on the ladder leading up to the balcony above, smoking a cigarette.

Mom was sitting in a chair nearby the counter, fidgeting nervously.

Buffy had gone outside into the alleyway behind the store, coming back in.

"Something going on out back?" Xander asked.

Buffy walked closer. "Vampire."

Xander nodded. "Oh."

Buffy sighed. "Anything?"

"Nothing you want to hear," Giles answered. "The ritual is, uh..."

"Explain it again," I told him.

"There's nothing new to--" Giles started.

I stood in overwhelmed anxiety, turning away in annoyance. "Go through it again."

Everyone looked at me nervously.

Giles slowly removed his glasses. "The Key was... living energy. It needed to be channeled, poured into a specific place at a specific time. The energy... would flow into that spot, the walls between the dimensions break down. It stops, the energy's used up, the walls come back up. Glory uses that time to get back into her own dimension, not caring that all manner of hell will be unleashed on earth in the meantime."

Everyone looked grim.

"Um, but only for a little while, right?" Anya asked. "The walls come back up, uh, n--no more hell?"

"That's only if the energy is stopped," Willow told us. "And now the Key is human." She looked over her shoulder toward me. "Is Dawn."

Giles read from a book. "'The blood flows, the gates will open. The gates will close when it flows no more'." He removed his glasses. "When Dawn is dead."

Everyone was in somber silence.

"I have places to be!" Mom told us.

We looked at her.

Mom fell silent again.

We returned to our conversation.

"Why blood?" Xander asked. "Why Dawn's blood? I mean, why couldn't it be like a--a lymph ritual?"

"'Cause it's always got to be blood," Spike answered.

"We're not actually discussing dinner right now," Xander told him.

"Blood is life, lackbrain," Spike told him. "Why do you think we eat it? It's what keeps you going. Makes you warm. Makes you hard. Makes you other than dead." He spoke quietly. "'Course it's her blood."

"Pretty simple math here," Buffy told us. "We stop Glory before she can start the ritual. We still have a couple hours, right?"

"If my calculations are right," Giles answered. "But--"

"I won't wanna hear it," I told him, turning away.

"I understand that," Giles told me.

I turned back. "No. No, you don't understand. We are not talking about this."

Giles lashed out. "Yes, we bloody well are!" Everyone looked shocked by Giles' outburst. Giles calmed down. "If Glory begins the ritual... if we can't stop her..."

"Come on," I told him. "Say it. We're bloody well talking about this. Tell me to kill my sister."

Giles hesitated, lowering his voice to a whisper. "She's not your sister."