“What do we do now?” Willow whispered.

“We do what we did back in the cave,” Wulf growled. “Rosie, give the cub to Giles and we can fight.”

“No,” Rose hissed. “We’re not doing things their way again, we’re doing things my way.” She handed the baby to Wulf and stomped towards the soldiers. “I want to speak to your commander!” She shouted.

The men in front of her formed tighter ranks, preparing to fire. “Hold on men,” a voice said. “I’ll talk to her.” The soldiers parted and let on man through.

When Rose saw who he was, she began to growl. “You,”

“Yeah,” Riley nodded. “It’s me.”

“Riley!” Buffy shouted. “Why are you after them when I told you they’re not evil!”

“I’m only here following orders, Buffy.” Riley said.

“Everyone shut up!” Rose shouted. Everyone around her fell silent. “Now, Riley, is it?” She asked. Riley nodded. “Riley, I have been here for seven days, during that time I have been chased, hunted, attacked and had a baby, not necessarily in that order. I am tired. Too tired to deal with self righteous, trigger-happy pricks like you. Now, you will find twelve of, who I assume to be your men, unconscious in that cave back there. You will also find that none of them are dead or seriously hurt in any way. That is because my pack and I went out of our way to make sure none of them were overly harmed. They were trying to kill my pack, my mate, my child and myself, but I made damn sure that none of them were harmed. Wouldn’t you say that is very not evil of us?”

“Well I-” Riley started to say.

“Shut up,” Rose shouted. “Now, the courtesy that we extended your other men in there, that’s done. You had your chance to stop us, you lost that chance. Now we get to go. If you try to stop us again, I will show no hesitation in killing each and every one of you all by myself. Now let us pass or not even the Slayer will be able to stop me.”

Riley shook his head. “I’m sorry, but I can’t do that.” He took a step back. “Open fire!” He shouted.

All around them, the weapons that the men were holding started to glow, about to shoot. “We should run,” Xander said.

Rose shook her head, extending her arm. “Meine Feinde stoppen! (Stop my enemies!)” She hissed. All of the commandos in front of her suddenly stopped, frozen in their positions. “Just like toy soldiers.” She smirked, turning back to Wulf and the rest of the pack. She surveyed Buffy, Giles and the others; they were frozen as well. “Huh, I thought the enemies part was pretty specific. Oh well, we’d better get going.”

“But Rose, what about them?” Amsel asked, looking over at Buffy and the others.

Rose shook her head, taking the cub from Wulf. “We don’t have time; we’ve got to get to our boat. Now c’mon.”

They all nodded and followed Rose away from the cave and through the woods. They walked towards the edge of town, through five cemeteries, three churchyards and two more wooded areas. They were less than a mile from the docks, when Rose had to stop. “What is it, Rosie?” Wulf asked.

“Wulf, I had a baby less than a week ago,” Rose panted. “I need to rest.”

Wulf nodded, taking the baby from her and looking at the others. “Gather around us, I don’t want to be caught off guard.”

Rose shook her head. “You don’t need to do that, no one’s following us.”

Amsel shrugged. “We should guard you anyways, just to be safe.”

“Alright,” Rose said, continuing to breath heavily. The pack had been moving at a fairly brisk pace and Rose had been able to keep up, but for some reason, she was suddenly tired.

After another few minutes, Vogel began to sniff the air. “We should get going, I think I smell someone.”

They all turned to look at Rose. “Are you okay to go now?” Ritter asked. “Cause if you’re not, Wulf could carry you.”

“No,” Rose said, standing up from the ground. “I’m alright. Give me Baer and we’ll get going.” Wulf handed her the baby and they began running in the direction of the Sunnydale docks.

They arrived at the docks ten or fifteen minutes later. “Where’s the boat?” Hirsch panted. “It should be here.”

“Well we’re early. But it’ll be here, trust me.” Rose said.

“How do you know?” Roth asked.

Rose shrugged. “I just know.”

The others accepted that as an answer and began scanning the water for a boat. After another few minutes, a fog passed over the water. When it cleared, a boat was docked right next to the wolves. “Is this it?” Amsel asked, looking at the boat.

“Yes,” Rose said. “This is it.” She sighed happily, finally knowing that her child, her mate and he family would be safe again. “Let’s go, we haven’t got much time.” They all started moving towards the boat, when a voice stopped them.

“Don’t move.” Riley said. Rose and the others slowly turned and saw the man, holding some sort of energy weapon towards them. “Now, put your arms above your heads, and kneel down on the ground.”

Rose shook her head. “You’re making a big mistake. Just let us go and I promise you’ll never see us again.”

“No, I can’t.” Riley said. “My orders are to bring at least three of you back alive.”

“How about I just kill you?” Wulf growled. “Then you don’t have to follow orders anymore.”

“Wulf, down.” Rose said. “Let me deal with this.” She handed the baby to Wulf and took a step towards Riley. “Just listen to me for a moment, alright? That’s all I ask.”

Riley nodded reluctantly. “Okay, fine.”

“I want you to imagine something for a second.” Rose said. “Imagine never, ever seeing Buffy again. Could you live like that? I thought that after we were cursed, I would never see Wulf or the others again. And even worse, I thought that my baby would never be born. You don’t know how that feels, to be pulled outside of reality and broken away from everything that you have ever known.”

She took a deep breath and started to speak again. “I’m not asking for much, I’m just asking for you to look the other way so that my family and I can have a chance to live the lives we were supposed to have. So please, just turn the other way, and let us go.”

Riley gripped tighter to his gun, taking aim at Rose and the others. Wulf handed Baer to Ritter and went to stand in front of Rose, but she pushed him back. “No, I’m not going to run.” She spread her arms apart, holding them out to the sides of her body. “Take your shot. I’m not afraid to die. But if I were you, I’d be afraid of what Buffy would say if you killed an innocent person.”

Riley sighed, dropping his gun. “You may not be innocent, but you’re not evil.” He gulped. “Go, before I change my mind.”

“Thank you,” Rose smiled. She turned around and took the baby from Ritter. “Everyone on the boat.” They all turned and ran on to the boat. Hirsch disappeared; he came back on to the deck a moment later.

“I told the captain we’re all set.” He said. “We’re going to shove off now.”

“Good,” Wulf said, looking back at Riley. “Thank you for letting us go. Your girlfriend will be very proud of you.”

Before Riley could ask what Wulf meant, a fog engulfed the ship. It cleared a moment later and the ship was gone. Riley sighed heavily, picking up his gun from the ground. He stood there for another minute, looking out over the water. He felt a skinny pair of arms wrap around his shoulders.

“You know what,” Buffy said from behind Riley. “I am very proud of you.” She said quietly, walking in front of Riley. “You had orders, and you still let them go.”

Riley shrugged. “I couldn’t have taken three of them all by myself.”

Buffy chuckled slightly. “I know that’s not the reason why you did it, but if that’s the reason you tell yourself, that’s fine with me.” She reached for Riley’s free hand, lacing her fingers through his. “Let’s go home. It’s been a long week.” Riley nodded and they both walked away from the docks and back towards Buffy’s dorm room.

~

It was almost sunrise and Anya waited impatiently for the man she was supposed to meet. She heard a stick crack and whirled around. A shadowy figure walked out from the trees into the clearing Anya was standing in. “Hello, Anyanka.” A man’s voice said.

Anya nodded. “Hello, Herr Miller. Do you have the rest of my money?”

Herr Miller nodded, reaching into his jacket pocket and pulling out a thick envelope. He handed it to Anya. “There’s a bit extra in there. I figured that you deserved a bit more because of inflation rates and whatnot.” Anya nodded, taking the envelope from him and tucking it into her coat pocket. “Why do you look so sad?”

Anya shrugged. “I don’t know. It just seems a little odd that you’d pay me all the money your village had, to bring seven wolves to the future in any way I could. Why did you need them here? Here in this time, in this place, in this town.”

He shrugged. “I needed them here because this is the only town with people who would be able to help them. I needed them in this time, because their baby will be the beginning of a new species.”

Anya shook her head. “I don’t understand.”

Herr Miller sighed. “Back home in Germany, werewolves and other… undesirable demons have been running rampant. It started all the way back in 1693, and I knew that I had to fix it somehow. When I found out that a woman in our village was pregnant by a wolf, I took the opportunity to seek you out, in order to find a way to make their child be born when it would be safe.”

“And now is safe?” Anya asked.

He nodded. “Yes, it is. Right now, those seven wolves and that cub are on their way to a village in Germany where there is another few families of wolf demons. It was always my intent for Rose and the others to return home to Germany and help create a new population of wolf demons.

“You see Anyanka,” Herr Miller said, looking directly into Anya’s eyes.  “I was never the bad guy here, I was always trying to do something good for Rose’s baby. Something good for all of us.” He tipped his hat. “I hope to see you again, if I don’t, I wish you all the best.” Herr Miller turned around and walked back towards the trees. Suddenly, he turned into a gray wolf and went running off through the woods. When he was gone, Anya shook her head and went her own way.

Das Ende