Spike awoke with a start only to be slowly eased back down by Faith.

"Whoa there, Captain, take a minute to breathe…even though you don't." Faith chuckled, "You've been out for almost two days. I was worried about you."

"What about Tara and Dawn, are they ok?" Spike tried to push himself up again frantically and Faith pushed him down rougher and then jerked a thumb over her shoulder.

On the floor slumbered Tara and Dawn; Dawn looked so fragile and was curled up against Tara who had her arm around her.

"They were worried more," Faith continued "Had to force them to go to sleep a few hours ago with the promise that I would keep watch."

Faith leaned down to Tara and placed a hand on her shoulder, Tara's eyes slowly opened and widened as she saw Spike was away. Faith motioned for her to help and she got up and they both helped a begrudging Spike from the hall to the stairs and into the kitchen.

Faith put him down in a chair and Tara busily got to work on blood for Spike. She sat their patiently and made him drink three cups full of blood and asked if he needed more.

"You're bloody killing me here, I'll drown if you don't soon let up" Spike sighed

"So you're ok?" Tara questioned.

"Right as rain, Glinda.." as soon as the words escaped from his lips Tara collapsed into him and started crying into his shoulder and kissing his face.

"Death by affection…not a bad way to go" He chuckled nervously; he started to rub her back and run his fingers through her hair "Now then love, what's all this? No tears now, I'm fit as a fiddle. Just had my sense knocked out a whack a little but everything is alright."

"Never ever do something that stupid again, mister" Tara sobbed into his ear.

"Well I can't promise that, luv. I've been known to lack sense with a decision or two in my life." He smiled and kissed her.

Her tears dried but she still didn't stray that far from his side.

He looked over towards Faith and motioned towards the phone; he then pulled Tara from their hug and looked at her.

"If you're up for company, love, we gotta get the rest of the gang together; I've learned something that I need to share."

Spike then shook his head, before he told them, he had to tell her. He took a deep unneeded breath, looked into her lovely eyes and squeezed her shoulder before he began.

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Everyone sat in shock with what Spike had just said. Spike and Tara had agreed earlier that they would talk by themselves to Dawn and face whatever was needed as a unit. But she was asleep right now and Rupert needed to know about the situation.

Riley had been moved from minor passing annoyance to credible threat by becoming a vampire and was moved up to DEFCON 1 with his "Beast" status.

So Spike told them all about the encounter with the monk and with Riley. Only he and Tara knew of his dream and his supposed gift. Needless to say everyone had a glass in hand with more than a few fingers of something strong.

Giles was pacing the floor; nothing in the books they read had anything remotely resembling the situation they were in. They were going into this blind and it sounded like something stronger than he had ever faced with Buffy and the others.

Anya had been nervously spilling out any encounter with powerful demons of that caliber she had ever had experience with.

Faith looked like she just wanted to kill something; if she could have she would take on an army to take down Riley and his agenda. Spike was like her brother so Dawn was her niece and she'd go through hell and high water to make sure not a hair was harmed on that girl's head.

Spike and Tara sat on a chair together sat quietly on a chair. Tara kept on running her fingers through his hair as she could see the tension etched into his face even when he looked up at her and smiled.

Everyone was lost in thought in their own way.

Spike started smelling the sweet smell of blood and bounded to his feet. Everyone jumped at his sudden movement and jumped again at the thump on the floor of a switchblade.

There was a collective gasp as the whole gang took in a crying, dripping with blood Dawn with her arms outstretched.

"This is blood. Real blood! See, it can't be me. I'm not a key. I'm not a thing."

"Oh My God, DAWNIE" Tara shook as she ran and scooped Dawn up in her arms, trying to staunch the flow of blood with her own shirt. She mumbled a few words and the cuts sealed themselves.

Dawn just looked at her as if she was something foreign and pushed her away, hard. Tara fell backwards.

"What the hell am I; some kind of cosmic joke? I'm not even real!" She screamed. "Those sick bastards created me and gave me THESE memories of all the things they could have done!"

It was too much all of a sudden and she threw up and then collapsed into whimpering pile.

She shook as Spike laid a gentle hand on her. "Would you mind if I took you upstairs, Bit?" he said in his softest voice possible. She went limp as he lifted her up and then fell back into sobbing as she wrapped her arms around him and cried into his shoulder hard.

As he was about to turn into her room a soft hand turned him towards the bathroom. He looked over his shoulder to see Tara there. He allowed her to lead them to the bathroom and he let Dawn down until she was standing in the middle of the bathroom. Tara nodded towards the door and Spike returned it and left. He closed the door and stood beside it.

Tara pushed Dawn's matted hair behind her ears and looked at her; she seemed in shock.

Tara started filling the tub and undressed her. Dawn herself shuffled to the bath and sat in it. Tara didn't have any idea what to do as she started washing Dawn's hair, so she did what her mother would have done when she was a child, she started humming. It seemed to relax Dawn as she sunk further into the bath and became more pliable. After she was done cleaning her hair she went to work cleaning her face and back, all the while continuing to hum the song that took her back to her childhood. She toweled off her hair, wrapped her in a very warm bathrobe, and brushed her hair.

Spike was startled out of his thoughts by the door opening. He watched them go into the master bedroom and quietly followed. Dawn curled up onto the bed and Tara cautiously followed. She laid parallel to Dawn as Spike stood at the door. They say there in silence for a while.

"Tara"

"Yes,Dawn?"

"I'm sorry for hitting you"

"Don't worry about it, Sweetie."

"Spike"

"Yeah, Bit"

She patted in front of her and Spike took the cue to crawl into the bed. Dawn then silently reached back to grab Tara's arm, setting it down on her own torso and then doing the same with Spike's arm.

Dawn started to cry once more and whispered quietly "I wish you guys would have always been my parents."

Both Spike and Tara pulled closer to Dawn and squeezed just a little bit harder.

This was not a time for words.

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Spike had slept through the night so waking up with the sun shining outside felt a little bit off. Dawn and Tara started to shift a bit at his movement so he slid as stealthily as he could out of the bed.

He lumbered down the stairs and threw his hands up at the sunlight before it clicked in. It would take him a while before he got used to the necro-glass.

He rounded the corner into the kitchen to see Anya cooking breakfast and Giles and Faith sitting there drinking coffee.

"Let them crash in my room and I took the couch" Faith spoke alerting the other's to Spike's presence.

"The bed was very comfortable…" Anya chimed in, "and sturdy."

Giles coughed on his coffee a little and Spike just shook his head.

"And that's my cue to wash and/or burn my sheets" Faith said as she stood. She made her way past Spike and patted his shoulder, "cleaned up the mess in the living room too".

Spike grabbed a mug and his blood and tossed it in the microwave; "Anything new on how we can deal with the situation, Rupert?"

"Afraid not despite not getting a wink of sleep" Giles groaned as he rubbed his eye lids. "I'm going to try and get in contact with the council. Though we are not in their good graces at this moment I am sure the urgency to this threat to the world will make them come around."

Spike nodded as he sat down. He took a warm mouthful. Today was going to be a long long day.

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Dawn had been awoken by Spike and his closing of the door. She sat up in bed as she watched Tara sleep. Unconsciously, she started stroking Tara's hair as she slept. She'd never been the cuddliest of people but for some reason she felt compelled and continued to do so even when Tara's eyes started to flutter.

"Thank you for taking care of me" Dawn whispered and Tara took in the girl with fresh eyes. She had such a tough exterior but was all the more fragile inside.

"Don't mention it, sweetie. It's kinda what I'm supposed to do."

"Doesn't if feel weird, you know? You are not even six years older than me but you're supposed to be my mom?"

"Not even a little. I felt like I was taking the role before so when Spike told me about the monks and what they did everything just clicked into place."

"I'm not going to lie, it feel really strange but at the same time, it feels natural. Spike looked out for me way more than the man I thought was my father did in my head and my own mother sold me for a fix; so you are definitely a few steps up."

Tara smiled and scrunched her nose "I'm going to take that as a compliment, Dawnie. Now let's get downstairs so I can make you some pancakes."

"Sounds cool"

"And by the way … no more smoking and drinking … and remember, this time it's you mom talking." Tara laughed and mussed her hair.

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They spent the rest of the day trying to figure out more information on what they were up against. Giles had gotten a hold of the council and after much discussion they were combing their own archives. They told Giles they would call him back with information as they got it. The house looked more like a library with the stacks of books that surrounded each of them.

"Oh … I think I got something …" everyone turned to Anya as she excitedly spewed forth, "Oh wait… this is just about an ascension of a pure demon, nothing we can use, dammit."

Giles cried out in frustration and threw the book in his hand against the wall.

"Something just feels fundamentally wrong with the visual of a librarian abusing books" Faith joked to lighten the mood.

"We'll I would have to if the bloody thing would give me some damned clue on how to deal with this!" Giles raged, he only took a deep breath when Anya rubbed his back.

"I think we all need some tea" Anya said to the others and Tara quickly followed her into the kitchen. The others continued studying until they both emerged with trays. They all relaxed a little with the much needed break.

"Oy, it's bloody late enough." Spike said as he looked up at the clock realizing the lateness of the hour.

"I need to go kill something in the worst way" Faith flowed.

"We need to keep up with the patrols and Spike you may be able to get some information from Willy or another unsavory character" Spike nodded as he grabbed his coat and Faith followed.

The streets were pretty dead and most of the information they could gather wasn't that instructive … Riley had eaten someone with power and was now running with its minions and also most of the vampires in town, who had sworn allegiance to him. Willy told them something bad was going down and it was going to be soon.

They went back to the house with their heads held low. It didn't really help getting out of the house.

The living room was empty as they got in so they proceeded to the dining room. They were surprised when they saw the table flanked by watchers with Travers sitting at the head of it, Everyone had a concerned look on their face.

"That was quick … come to reprimand the wicked step-children, have we?" Spike smirked

"Not now … Spike" Giles grabbed a hold of his arm "Please sit down, he insisted we wait for you and Faith."

"Yes, William, please sit down" Travers echoed with stern civility.

Spike was taken off guard and Faith followed suit in sitting down quickly in one of the free chairs.

"We have come to assist you. The watchers you see around you are part of an elite field unit. Military trained for the… messier side of our business. They are at your disposal. We've also come with surveillance, reinforcements for your home and enough scanned documents to keep us all busy for days. You have to full support of the council." Travers eyes never left Spike and despite the business like tone he could see a glint of fear in him.

"I've also brought this," Travers nodded and a box was lowered in front of him, "To aid in our battle."

Travers unlocked the box himself and pulled a bundled piece of cloth out. He laid it on top the chest and unfolded it. Giles breath caught in his throat.

"It can't be."

"I assure you, Rupert. It is."

"I had heard rumors that we had this in our possession but I thought it hearsay. There was no possible way, it was a thing of myth. "

"Dyrnwyn, the Sword of Rhydderch Hael"

"Draw Dyrnwyn, only those of noble rule with justice, to strike down evil. Who wields it in good cause shall slay even the lord of death."

"Great … we have a sword … we have many swords. We make quick work of the vamps and slay the honorable right git formerly known as Riley." Spike interrupted the conversation between Giles and Travers.

"Our problem does not lay with the demon who has taken over the body of Mr. Finn but in the mantle he has assumed and all the powers there in, William" Travers said gravely.

"What full blooded demon decided that Captain Crunch was a viable vessel?"

"According to the Drogyn Codex, It was fortold that a being of pure evil would come forth; banished from a realm of pure torment for being merciless even by their measure. Glorificus was also cursed with a human form, never knowing when she would shift to the powerless form. It seems somehow your vampire had figured out the weakness and killed Glorificus and with it, the power."

Travers removed his glasses, set them on the table and took a breath.

"Your Vampire has become a God …. Meant to bring about the End of Days."