… feel the power that emanates from Willow. He wants to say something to break the tension but he can't move. Willow's power is devouring his will.

"Dissension in the ranks," Gregor says, contented. "Seldom the harbinger of glad tidings."

"Shut up!" Buffy looks between Willow and Giles, worried and confused. "Guys, can we put it off? The Beast isn't an imminent danger, Faith isn't in pain, we have a bit of breathing-space.  Let's focus on the Beast and how to slay it."

"The Ren Faire reject was yammering something about the Beast's human host," Spike reminds.

Willow's hand on Xander's shoulder relaxes. She slowly deflates. "C'mon, Giles, I don't want to fight. Let's not, okay? I'll think about what you said, and you... try to be happy I saved your lives, okay?"

Giles relents. "Willow, I just ask you to be very careful. You have no idea what kind of power you're toying with."

Willow ducks her head guiltily. "I will be careful. I won't try to confront the Beast, I promise. I will find her human host."

"It's impossible," Gregor says.

Willow snorts. "All you have to do is to go online and write "man turns into woman" in a search box. No magic, no spells, just typing skills and common sense..."

Gregor smiles mirthlessly. "You really are arrogant. You think it's that easy?"

Willow shrugs. "I think a lot of people would notice a man turning into a woman."

He shakes his head. "Glorificus secured herself against it. Her minions did a spell that forbids humans to remember the change."

"How can you forbid someone to remember?" Buffy asks, puzzled.

"Humans forget about the change instantly."

"Only humans?" Spike inquires. "Because I could ask around in vampire circles."

Gregor sighs. "Vampires are immune to this spell, but the host is human and he is unlikely to visit vampire brothels..."

"Still, there is a chance."

Giles shakes his head. "Too risky. The life of one child against the destiny of civilization."

Willow's eyes sparkle. "Wasn't it risky with the box of Gavrok? The life of one Willow Rosenberg against the destiny of the civilization. And this Willow is still alive."

"That was different. The box of Gavrok was just one of the ingredients the Mayor needed for his Ascension."

"It's always different! There is only one permanent thing - we don't sacrifice humans, no matter how hard it is. And even if we can't destroy the Beast, we can hide Faith and her baby until..."

"You can't," Gregor says. "That's what we planned initially. But as soon as Glory became aware of the identity of the Key, we realized that the plan had failed."

Willow snorts. "Pffft, identity. I could..." Off Giles' glare she amends quickly. "The Council can provide Faith with false documents and safely hide her until the window of opportunity is closed."

Gregor gives her a long calculating look.

"No, it won't work," he says finally.

"Why?"

"Because Glorificus will find out about the Key's whereabouts, no matter what. Won't she?"

"What do you mean?" Giles asks sharply. "Wait... How did she find out in the first place?"

Gregor looks at him appreciatively. "That's the question, isn't it? We took all the necessary precautions to hide the Key's identity. We even provided it with a pain barrier to protect from any magical influence. Everything went smoothly until the news about the Key reached Sunnydale. Until you found out that the Slayer carries a child."

Xander's stomach knots. Gregor is voicing his own fears. Fears that have plagued him since the assault on Faith. As soon as they found out about Faith's baby, Glorificus found out too.

"It was your bleeding monk who betrayed you and gave the Key away to the skank," Spike says flatly.

"It is impossible," Gregor retorts. "All the monks are put under a special spell. They forget everything as soon as they see the Beast. It's a standard precaution. It was one of your people who leaked the word."

Buffy is baffled. "But none of us knew about the Key until you told us!"
 
"I don't believe in coincidences," Gregor says wearily. "The traitors who defected to the Beast told her that the Key was something new to this world and that the monks had sent the Key to the Slayer. So initially Glorificus was convinced they had sent it to Summers. We hoped that Summers could keep The Beast occupied till the window of opportunity is closed..."

"You're disgusting, you know?" Buffy spits.

"The monks did all they could to help you, Summers. They directed your best friend's interests towards powerful magic..." The general looks at Willow briefly. "They even provided the Slayer with a vampire ally who had connections in the demon world..." He nods at Spike sullenly. "Their plan seemed to work for a while. Glorificus stuck to Sunnydale. Until somebody tipped her off that the other Slayer was with child."

Gregor glances around the group.

"There is an informer among you."

***19 BUFFY CRINGES. BUFFY HELPS. WELL, SHE MOSTLY CRINGES

"You're lying!"

Buffy is furious. "You think we'll believe you and start killing each other? These people are my closest friends and I trust them more than I trust myself. There are no traitors here!"

Giles coughs discreetly. "Actually, it's hard to believe it was a coincidence..." Off Buffy's glare he falls silent.

The arrival of Buffy's doctor is a pleasant distraction from the tension. The knights are reluctant to let him in, but Spike assures them that Gregor needs medical help, namely, a blood transfusion, because he, Big Bad Bloodsucker, drained him almost dry, grrr, - and demonstrates his fangs with relish.

Doctor Ben looks very unhappy but he acts professionally. He orders Xander and Spike to put the unconscious Faith on the countertop, checks her pulse. He can't help but cast furtive glances at Spike, at the same time trying to ignore the fact that Gregor is tied to the pillar. Does the doctor take them for a bunch of homeless junkies? Raving maniacs? Bonnies and Clydes on the run?

"Is your friend drugged?" he asks Buffy. "What happened to her?"

"She doesn't take drugs," Buffy murmurs. "She was having contractions. Then something went wrong. She was in terrible pain. Willow put her under a spe... under hypnosis."

"Was she bleeding?"

Buffy winces. "N-no," she murmurs. "I don't think so."

Xander tenses when the doctor bares Faith's abdomen. He doesn't understand why he suddenly feels like someone is walking over his grave when this stranger presses his stethoscope to Faith's belly.

"Has she had any abdominal trauma in the past?"

Buffy flinches and averts her eyes. "She was wounded in the stomach once..."

The doctor puts away his stethoscope and examines Faith's belly closely. "I don't see any scars. But if she really was shot in the abdomen during pregnancy - especially in the lower abdomen -  there could have been grave complications."

Apparently, the doctor thinks they're a gang of sado-masochistic scum who shoot pregnant girlfriends in the stomach.

"It happened before her pregnancy," Buffy says with difficulty.

"How long ago?"

"Eighteen months. And - she hasn't been shot. She has been stabbed. With a knife." She presses her index finger to her own gut below navel. "Here."

Doctor Ben scrutinizes Faith's skin again.

"You're wrong, Buffy. She has no scars. Could she make it up? You know, to gain your sympathy?"

"No, she didn't make it up."

"How do you know? You were there when she was stabbed?"

Buffy half-laughs, half-sobs.

"It was me who stabbed her."

"What?!" The doctor is officially creeped out. He looks at the others, but nobody tells him it was a joke. "Over the phone you told me the girl who needed help was your friend."

"She is my friend!" Off the doctor's shocked look she adds. "It's... complicated."

Poor Doc will probably reconsider asking Buffy out now. "Did she recover completely after you sta... after that incident? Were there complications?"

Buffy hugs herself nervously. "Yes. She was in a coma for nine months. But, when she woke up... Her body felt okay. Recovered."

The doctor's eyebrows go up.

"It's not what you think," Buffy murmurs, blushing.

"Am I getting this right? Eighteen months ago you stabbed her, she spent nine months in a coma, woke up, you... something happened between you, and for the next nine months she carried a baby. May I ask who the proud father is?"

Buffy looks at Xander.

"I am," he says.

The doctor takes his measure sourly. "Has she been complaining of abdominal pains during pregnancy?"

"I - I don't know. She was... not here."

The disapproval in the doctor's eyes becomes more evident. "I see. Do you know if she has been under medical observation?"

He nods vigorously. "The last five months she has been under constant medical observation. And she was okay."

"Where was she observed?"

"In Northern California Women's Facility."

He doesn't realize how it sounds until he's done saying it.

"She didn't escape from jail. She's been paroled."

"Really? When?"

"Today. Or, rather, yesterday. And she was - okay. Until something went wrong."

The doctor shrugs. "So far, I don't see anything wrong with her or the baby. She isn't bleeding, she has fully dilated, the fetus' pulse is steady. You have to wake her up from hypnosis so that she could push."

Xander is afraid to believe him. Afraid to jinx it. "But she was in terrible pain."

"It's her first delivery, isn't it? She has narrow hips and very strong abdominal muscles - so, the dilation could have been extremely painful. Besides, pain level is greatly influenced by fear and anxiety. Wake her up. It's good that she has rested a bit. Because she has work to do."

When Faith comes to her senses the first word she says is his name. "Xander... don't let them..."

"It's okay, Faith," he hastens to say. "Buffy is helping us. She won't let anybody hurt our baby."

He looks at Buffy pointedly. She nods.

"I promise, Faith. You and baby will be okay. Relax - I mean, don't relax, because you have to push... right, doctor?"

"I'll take it from here, if you don't mind," Ben says. "Faith, right? Good name. Now, Faith, listen closely. You have to help your baby to get born. So, when I tell you to push, you push..."

The next several minutes are a blur. When did the doctor tell him to hold Faith down? Did it happen when she almost broke the doctor's arm? Or when she started thrashing and ruined his stethoscope? Transfixed, Xander watches Buffy pressing hard on Faith's belly. Did she step in when Faith moaned that she couldn't do it anymore? Or when the doctor appealed to Giles, only to see him frozen  with shock? "Help her, Buffy, now!" - "What do I do?" - "Weight upon her upper stomach with both hands and press down, with all your force!" - "But, Ben, I'm very strong, you know?" - "Good!" - "I can hurt her!" - "You won't!"

Then, suddenly, it's over. Faith relaxes in his arms, sobbing and laughing, Buffy lies across Faith's midsection, also sobbing and laughing, and their daughter proudly demonstrates her lung power.

"Congratulations, Faith," Ben says. "You've given birth to a healthy girl. Do you want to hold her?"

"Yes," she whispers. "Yes."

The baby is tiny. Hard to believe that this fragile creature could cause so much pain. Impossible to believe that this little bundle can destroy the world.

"She is the spitting image of her mother," he says to Faith. "She has your eyes."

"And your mouth, Xander" Buffy adds. "Oh, guys, she is so beautiful."

Xander grins at her. "Does it make you wanna have one?"

"Oh, no. I couldn't survive such an ordeal." Buffy sounds genuinely awed. "You're a real hero, Faith. I don't think I'm that brave."

Spike smirks. "Thank your lucky stars you have an undead lover."

"Don't listen to Spike, Buffy," Willow says. "Delivering a child must be an incredibly empowering experience. Right, Faith?"

She grins feebly. "Yep, I'm a poster child of women power."

"No, really. You created a new life. You became equal to God. You..."

"You have to let me out!" the doctor Ben screams suddenly.

Willow is puzzled. "Why? Did I hurt your feelings by not mentioning your help?"

"You don't understand! I've got to get out! Open a door! Now!"

Instinctively, Xander covers Faith and the baby, and that's when it happens.

A shift.

Like a slide projector. When one cartridge is taken out of the slot, for a brief moment you can see a blank white wall. Then another cartridge is inserted and there is a new picture.

A completely new picture.

Where the doctor Ben stood few moments ago, now stands the already-familiar woman with a wicked, haughty face.

Glorificus.

The Beast.

***20 THE FINALE

Glorificus looks around, taking in the situation. "How unexpected. He finally did something right."

Who the hell is she talking about? Xander's heart is pounding. He hugs Faith who's clutching their daughter to her chest and staring at The Beast with grim, desperate challenge. He has never felt so powerless. Why can't he teleport? Or shoot laser beams from his eyes?

Glorificus smiles. "I don't even need to stain my divine hands, gutting a filthy human body and seeking bloodied bowels for my Key. It's already extracted from the cache and ready for use...."

Faith struggles to sit up but, exhausted, falls back into Xander's arms.

"How very useful of him..." Glorificus steps up and stumbles. "Hey, what have you worms done?"

Willow blocks the way, her silhouette crackling with magic. "Enemies, fly and fall...circling arms, raise a wall..."

Glorificus laughs derisively. "A little witch. You know what people used to do to witches? Burn 'em." She pounds on Willow's invisible barrier and Willow staggers a bit.

"Things change," Giles says as he joins hands with Willow. Glorificus hits the barrier again and yelps in frustration.

"Ouch," Buffy deadpans, taking Giles' hand. "A broken nail can get a girl into a bad mood for a week, you know."

"Especially if the skank paints her nails with the most garish polish in this dimension," Spike adds, grabbing Buffy's hand.

"How dare you! I am a God."

"The God of what?" Spike leers. "Bad perms? Fashion rejects?"

You need to enrage a God? Call Spike. Glorificus howls in frustration.

"Shut up, half-breed! Back in my youth, we called you the ooze that eats itself. You sparkled and stank of that filthy, degrading humanity that gets under my skin and devours me like a plague. I've been waiting an eternity - almost twenty-five human years - to get back to my beloved Hell where I'm gonna rule again. I'm gonna rain down more slaughter, mayhem and bloodshed than you can even dream about. So how come I ain't happy? Am I really fond of that little nagging pinch of humanity in me?"

Willow shoots a beam and Glorificus staggers, engulfed in the vortex of magic energy.

"You will pay for your insolence, arrogant littlewitch!" she hisses. "You think you can save them?"

"I know I can save them."

Willow's voice sounds strange - low and thundering. She looks back at Xander, smiles reassuringly, and he bolts, horrified, because her eyes are completely black and her face is covered with a web of thin black veins.

"You can't save them, you worthless scab!" Glorificus screeches. "And you know why? Because all of them are trapped here because of - you!"

"What?"

"Don't listen to her, Willow," Giles warns.

Glorificus sniggers. "Remember the day you came to the hospital to talk to your friend, witch? You had just uncovered a big fat secret. The secret your Watcher wanted to protect you from. But you found out that a Slayer was carrying a child and were so eager to share the news, so proud that you outsmarted your Watcher..."

"Giles, I swear I didn't want to..." Willow trails off.

"Later," he barks. "Focus!"

"You soared so high," Glorificus laughs, triumphant. "You fancied yourself the savior. You were expecting people to worship you. You stroked your ego, imagining how your friends would tell you about your brilliance, how you would become their leader. How that girl, who once was your enemy, would share your bed..."

"Shut up!"

Glorificus roars with laugher. "You are getting weak, honey. You realize, finally, who you are. A fragile human girl who is so scared and insecure that she defies a God to prove herself worthy."

"Kali, Hera, Kronos, Tonic, air like nectar thick as Onyx..." Willow chants desperately.

"Humanity is so funny," Glorificus muses. "Humans always potter about, stuck in their pathetic desires and passions. Yet, deep inside, each human pits himself against Gods. Frustrating, isn't it, to be muck at our feet? I can sympathize, witch. It was incredibly frustrating, to be trapped in a worthless human body when I knew the Key was so close. My minions went to the hospital to talk to Ben, overheard your conversation and I realized that the Key was hidden in another worthless human body..."

Xander looks at his daughter who sleeps through all of this in Faith's arms, and squeezes his fists. Yes, he is very frustrated to be trapped in his worthless human body. If he could break free he'd strangle The Beast with his bare hands.

He stands up and feverishly pats his pockets. He'd give anything for a decent weapon - bazooka, nuclear war-head, Klingon battleship - but there is nothing but Anya's sachet with the powder of Nagarju-something. He fumbles it aimlessly. What did Anya say about it? It reveals the inner essense of a person... no, it reveals weakness...

"...but you never give up, worms," Glorificus spits bitterly. "You pollute me with your stinking humanity. I'm lowering myself to mocking you, little witch, instead of putting my fist through your heart. I want to see you squirming, sobbing, begging for mercy when I start to eviscerate your friends..."

"Don't listen to her, Willow," Buffy pleads.

Too late. Darth Rosenberg's facade crumbles, and the next moment the magic barrier crackles and dissipates. Glorificus backhands Willow viciously, flings her across the room, and rushes to the Key.

To his daughter.

The Beast doesn't even notice Xander. If there's one good thing about being a nobody, it's working on saving the world unnoticed - especially to the enemy...

He acts instinctively. It's a pure reflex - to splash the powder into Glorificus' face. Only when the sparkling cloud starts to envelop her, the thought about the little nagging pinch of humanity in The Beast flashes in his brain...

... and then it happens again.

A shift.

A slide cartridge of furious Glorificus is taken out of the slot, for a brief moment there is a blank white wall, then another cartridge is inserted and there is doctor Ben, rumpled, unconscious, lying at his feet.

"Bloody buggering hell!" Spike exclaims. "It wasn't a hallucination! This bastard is Glorificus' host. He has been here, all the time. We could have killed him at any moment."

What is he talking about?

"Who is Glorificus' host?" Buffy asks, utterly bewildered.

Spike looks at her, baffled. "You know... Ben. He is The Beast."

Spike must be off his rocker. Ben isn't The Beast. Ben is the doctor who delivered their baby.

Willow slowly approaches them, staggering. "You mean Ben's with The Beast?"

"Has your God-defying gig scrambled your brains, Red?"

She only blinks.

"Bugger." Exasperated, Spike turns to Giles. "You saw it, didn't you, Rupert?"

"Saw what?"

"Is everyone here very stoned?" Spike looks between them, seriously pissed. "That wanker Ben turned into The Beast, did his "mwahaha, I'm evil" number, got sprinkled with shiny sparklets and turned back into wanker Ben. Surely, you remember! Ben. Glorificus. He's a doctor. She's The Beast. Two entirely separate entities, sharing one body. It's like a bloody sitcom!"

Spike must be hallucinating. Or watching too many soaps.

"Harris!"

Spike grabs him by the shoulders, shakes him roughly and winces as his chips fires. "Listen, I can't kill the bastard because of my sodding chip, but you can. You just have to believe me. The Beast worked the kind of mojo where anyone who sees her little presto-chango instantly forgets. And yours truly, being a vampire, stands immune. This wanker is The Beast."

"Are you out of your mind, Spike?" Buffy snaps. "You're asking Xander to kill Ben?"

"Bloody yes!" Spike squares off against her. "Because this is the only way."

"But… but…" Buffy turns to Giles for support, but he seems lost in thought, his gaze focused on Ben's unconscious form.

It does make sense. Gregor said something about vampires' immunity to the spell. And isn't it strange that Ben appeared right where The Beast was standing?..

"Dammit, Harris! We don't have much time!  Do you trust me?"

Can you trust a killer?

Something glimmers on the floor under the counter. Gregor's broadsword. Xander awkwardly lifts it up. It's incredibly heavy. And long. And - completely unreal. How could knights fight with these? In full armor? Yet they fought and they went to the Crusades and...

And they killed.

"What are you doing, Xander?" Buffy says, appalled. "You can't kill a human!"

What is he doing?

"He does what a man should do!" Spike snaps, blocking her the way. "For fuck's sake, Xander! Either you trust a vampire - or else the skank will be back and we all will die."

It's so weird, Spike calling him by name. It's so weird, them all looking at him. It feels like a school Shakespere production, him raising a sword over a man. Except it's a real sword raised over a real man. The man who delivered his baby. To be or...

He closes his eyes when he buries the sword in Ben's chest. Part of him still hopes to wake up in cold sweat and realize it was just a nightmare. But a when he forces himself to open his eyes, he sees a bloodied corpse with the sword in the chest.

Right in the heart. Staking vampires for five years finally paid off.

"The kid has guts," Spike croaks.

Xander turns away. He feels sick. He looks at Faith whose eyes are full of sympathy and he finally understands what she felt when she killed the Mayor's flunky. Some integral part of his soul is lost forever.

The Xander they knew is gone. Irreversibly. He is a different man.

"Look," Willow whispers.

He doesn't want to, but he looks nevertheless.

The body starts to change. Close-cropped cut turns into a shock of curls, the face acquires a feminine pout,  the masculine bulk transforms into a thin woman's torso.

"Oh, goodness," Gregor says with awe. "You killed it. You really killed The Beast."

The transformation of the body goes on. Beautiful face blackens, eyes sink into eye-sockets, flesh decomposes and acquires the look of an old parchment. Buffy touches the hand of the corpse and it bursts into dust.

Poor Doctor Ben.

"The Beast is dead," Gregor proclaims solemnly. "It's the end of the era of horrors, tortures and depravity..."

"Preaching to the choir, general," Giles says as he cuts the rope on Gregor's hands and feet. "There. Go tell your people to let us be."

The general nods. Before he leaves he comes to Xander and shakes his hand. "Thank you."

Just yesterday Xander would have quipped about calling him any time a God needs to get his ass kicked. But now his tongue fails him and he can only say, "You're welcome."

Nothing feels right. They've defeated the big bad, yet Xander feels like he's the only part in this whole picture that doesn't make sense.

A hand rests on his shoulder. "Do you want to hold her?" Faith asks softly.

He takes his daughter in his arms and his heart warms to her immediately. She is so small and weird and… she's his.

He hugs Faith and his detachment slowly melts away as he drinks in the moment. Their daughter. Their connection. Unexpected sadness in Buffy's eyes. Willow's awkward smile. Spike's knowing smirk. Giles' respectful glance.

Dawn of a new day. The moment of truth.

"What should we call her?" Faith asks.

"Dawn," he says softly. "We'll call her Dawn."