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~PART TWO~

The Present

"So these Villsk demons were trying to find a vampire and human so they could end the world?" Buffy asked, leaning back on the puffy chair, her hands straying to her face where she swiped away an errant strand of hair from her nose.

"Yep. Wacky bastards." Willow nodded, her legs drawn up under her from her seat on Buffy's couch.

"I guess they had three teams out looking for their sacrifices. But they didn't see us coming, eh Dawny?" Anya chimed in, grinning at the teenager on the floor. Dawn nodded and glanced at her sister for the thousandth time. Buffy merely scowled at her, obviously not moved by her sister's bravery in the interest of the world.

"That's my girl, always with the bravery." Xander said proudly, stroking Anya's back through her silky shirt. She smiled at him and then the ex-demon turned back to Dawn.

"You never told me how you got captured and thus taken to the Magic Box where I bravely risked my life to save you. Do it now."

"Sure...if my sister doesn't mind?" Dawn said bitterly, a wry twist to her lips. Buffy rolled her eyes and nudged Dawn with the toe of her boot.

"Go ahead sulky pants!"

Dawn actually smiled to hear the happy tone in her sister's voice. With that smile, she sat up straight again and launched into her tale.

"So I stepped out from behind the gravestone and they all looked at me. And I knew I was going to die. It was...kinda cool."

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~DAWN~

Midsummer Night
10:10 pm

"Stop right there!" Dawn repeated, even though they had stopped dead in their tracks, a million pairs of inky black eyes swiveling toward her and reflecting her own pale visage back at her.

"Human?" One said, mouth turning up into a frightening smile.

"Now that is luck." Another commented, twisting Fabreccio's arm in his massive hands.

"Grab her." The biggest one said, pulling the still-struggling vampire from the other's grip and standing aside. The other's rushed her immediately.

"Crap." Dawn repeated, raising the sword chest level and gritting her teeth. They were going to kill her and she knew it. What the hell had she been thinking? She wasn't the Slayer? Hell, she wasn't even the Key anymore!

The first demon grabbed for her arm and instinct told her to drop and roll away from his questing hands. She did so, rolling on the ground and landing in a sprawl in the manicured grass. The second demon was already launching himself at her and she brought the sword up in protection.

Really, she hadn't expected to get anything with the swipe she aimed at him, but surprise showed in her eyes when the edge of the blade sliced off it's hand. Orange-ish colored blood oozed from the ghastly stump and hit the green grass in fat splotches. The demon roared and reeled backward, bloody stump clutched to it's chest, horns quivering.

"Sorry!" Dawn said before she could think. What a minute...what the hell was she sorry for?

Feeling a bit more confident than before, Dawn climbed to her feet, keeping the nearest headstone between her and the four demons and thier vampire captive. There was a sudden shift in power as the demon's looked from her to the sword to the severed hand on the ground before them and then back at her again.

She was a threat.

Pfftt...if they only knew how hard her knees were knocking behind the tombstone they wouldn't be afraid of her in the slightest. If there was one thing Dawn had learned from Buffy though, it was to never show them any fear. So her chin rose of it's own accord and her smile spread slowly, menacingly.

"You want to end the world, you're gonna have to come through me, assholes." Her voice was steady and she thought maybe she sounded a bit like Buffy. Well, maybe more like Faith, but that would do just fine too.

"What are you? A Slayer?" The one holding the vampire asked. Fabreccio's eyes clouded and he shook his head, as if remembering something. Dawn latched onto the demon's suggestion and went with it. What could pretending hurt?

"Yeah. And I'm gonna Slay you. Cuz I'm Dawn the Vampire Slayer!"

"I thought the Slayer's name was Buffy?" One of the demon's said and Dawn was amazed that the insect eyes could look puzzled. So amazed that she nearly missed what the demon had said. And then it hit her. Crap...

"It was...is...she's dead! I'm the new Slayer and I'm ready to kick a little demon ass! Starting with yours!" Dawn's eyes flitted around in their sockets and she kicked herself for her own stupidity. Uh-oh. What had she just done?

"Fresh meat, eh? Always wanted to kill me a Slayer." The big one said, throwing the vampire at the bleeding demon. Fabreccio stumbled to his knees and looked at Dawn through his jewel bright eyes. Again, she almost felt sorry for him. Almost.

"Don't kill her! At least not yet! That honor goes to Fabreccio here! I wonder what kind of extra benefits Auturus will reward us with for Slayer blood on his altar, Orvak?" A demon pondered, his clawed fingers rubbing at his pointed chin.

"Don't know. All I know is that I'm getting a taste of it before we kill her." The big one, Orvak, said again, advancing on her. Dawn felt her brittle facade waver slightly as she watched his powerful muscles cord and strain through his thin black robes. She was in deep shit and she knew it.

So what would Buffy be doing right about now?

Punning was out. Her tongue was frozen to the roof of her mouth and she couldn't hold anything in her mind, let alone something witty in the slightest. Fighting? Well she wasn't going to have a choice there. Fight or die and she'd rather fight than give in like that. Run? Not while they were still alive. Or maybe.....

A single thought lodged itself in her brain and she clung to it, desperate for something, anything to get her out of this mess.
Suicide, she decided, but at least she was going to give it a shot.

Just as Orvak reached the tombstone, Dawn threw the sword at him. It clattered uselessly against his chest and thumped softly back down into the dirt. The momentary distraction it caused left time for Dawn to spring over the headstone and between the demon's legs. She snatched up the sword as she went, thanking God for the gymnastics lessons in P.E. she hated so much.

Before Orvak could turn, Dawn layed back down, bringing the sword up between it's legs from where she had landed. Grimacing, she plunged it home and felt the point sink wetly into the genitals of the demon. Or, she guessed it was the genitals, not that it mattered to her where the thing kept it's demony bits. All she knew was that the demon was now screaming, stamping it's feet and reaching for her.

Dawn brought up one leg and slammed her sneakered foot into the pommel of the sword, sending it sinking in further. Orvak screamed again and toppled over---on top of her. Dawn was too surprised to move out of the way, and not nearly agile enough to do it quickly.

The breath wooshed out of her lungs as the huge demon covered her body, red spittle flecking the corner of his lips. She didn't know if he was dead or not, but he certainly wasn't moving. And neither was she, apparantly.

"Crap..." Dawn moaned for the millionth time that night as the two uninjured demons descended on her, pushing Orvak off her body and hauling her up by her aching arms. That sooo hadn't gone the way she'd planned.

"Good one Slayer. But what are you going to do now?"

"I guess punning is out of the question?" Dawn ventured, eyes flickering over to Fabreccio's. The vampire was eyeing her strangely, his golden eyes narrowed.

"Funny. She's funny, Mortalk. Hmm...a funny sacrifice." The demon who was holding her right arm said, yanking her much like he had done with Fabreccio. Dawn tried not to yowl with pain. Again, she caught the vampire's eye and he just stared at her.

"Shit yeah, she's funny. So funny she's gonna die and I'm just gonna laugh..." Mortalk replied, snapping Dawn's attention back to the two demon's gripping her arms.

"Please! Don't kill me! ." Dawn pleaded, meaning it for once. There was no Buffy to save her and no one knew where she was.

"She's a beggar; I like that!" Mortalk laughed, tugging on her again. "Come on...we'd better get her back to the cave and Auturus's Altar if we want to get this thing done by midnight. Besides, we wanna have a sacrifice before Oblish and his assholes, don't we?"

"Damn straight." The bleeding demon chuckled through his pain, hauling Fabreccio with him as he took a step. "Come on. We'd better end the world."

Crap....

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The Present

"Anya can tell you the rest." Dawn mumbled as Buffy glared at her.

"But I want to hear what happened to Willow!" Anya said, looking over red-haired witch. "What did you do when another of your spells went wonky?"

Willow glared at her for a moment and then spoke, "I knew I was trapped and I didn't know where the hell I was...so I started probing around. Bad mistake."

"Why?" Xander asked, holding Anya's hand.

"Because the demon's High Priest was looking for something and I think it was me."

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~WILLOW~

Midsummer Night
10:10pm

If she'd had a stomach in this reality, it would be roiling. As it was she felt like she was perched on the edge of the world and was looking down into the abyss of stars, the only thing keeping her from falling a piece of paper that was slowly giving way under her weight.

Willow was in trouble. Deep shit, even. And she knew it. Something had gone wrong and she was stuck somewhere with no way to tell exactly where she was.

She thought briefly of Tara and then let the thought slide away. Wherever she was, she didn't think she could be reached. Or could she?

She tried and failed to call out, using every bit of her force to scream into the darkness. Nothing, not even echoes to meet her non-existant ears. What in the world was this place?

Willow tried to move her consciousness in another direction and found she could view the whole darkness without moving. It was dizzying and she nearly pitched forward, the piece of paper ripping some more. The stars around her throbbed and the image of a cave-wall flashed at her for a split second.

~What in the world is that?~

Gathering that inner, nameless power withing herself, she extended her senses and touched the shifting walls around her. Amazed that she even had her powers here, she was unprepared for the massive surge around her that crackled and sparked, gray, roiling smoke clouding up where her power touched the shifting stars/cave walls.

Her consciousness was blasted backward and she teetered on the edge of the paper once more. She steadied herself and reached again, more tentatively. When she touched the stars/cave walls with her red tendril of power once more, she ready for the blast of gray smoke that bubbled up in place.

She kept the steady flow of power and fed the stream, testing it for weakness and praying she was doing something that wasn't going to destablize the world around her.

Suddenly, the cloud of roiling gray smoke parted in the center and she beheld the cave walls, stable and solid. Whatever she'd done, she seemed to have opened up a hole in the universe and now she was looking into some strange gathering place.

She kept feeding her power into the stars and watched with intense interest as a huge band of orange, horned demons gathered around the altar of a stone demon with large clawed hands and the same horns of the demons in the cave.

~It's some kind of ritual~ Willow thought and watched as the demons each approached the altar, kneeling and cutting into their own wrists, smearing their orange blood on the demon's lips.

Faintly, she heard their rumbling voices as they echoed off the cave walls and bounced off the stars.

~Auturus, we gather your sacrifices even now. Soon your terror will be unloosened on the world and at midnight you will destroy this reality. And we, your humble Villsk servants, will ascend to your higher plane.~

Willow's attention was riveted on the demon talking, his robes gold as opposed to the black of the other demons. He must have been the High Priest and the one with the real power.

The gears in her mind ground quickly. They wanted to end the world and the Gatekeeper had thrown her here on purpose, in an effort to stop it. That meant she was the only one who knew what they had planned. And she was alone.

She fed more power into the gray smoke and decided to try something. She twisted a tendril of power and sent it through the gap in the world, reaching into the cave with lightning quick speed.

The High Priest's great horned head snapped up in her direction, insect eyes narrowing and a growl huffing out his lungs.

There was a tug as two separate powers were interlocked. Willow panicked for a moment and then steeled herself. That one moment was enough to knock her off balance though. She was shoved away with the force of a speeding train. Her power was thrust out of the roiling gray smoke and back into her. The wall closed and her view of the insides of the cave was lost.

Willow stared at the stars, watching as they gave her teasing tastes of the insides of the cave. ~Well, that didn't work. What now?~ She thought glumly, trying to think of some way she could get out of this purgatory and into that cave without the High Priest sensing it. She had a feeling that was impossible.

Good. She liked impossible.

*** *** ***

The Present

"Whoa, that's pretty scary." Dawn said, glancing worriedly up at the redhead. Willow smiled back reassuringly and then turned to Giles and Spike.

"Now what about you two? I wanna know how Giles dealt with drunken Spike!" She said, enjoying the way Spike's knuckles cracked. When he refused to answer, Giles stepped up to the plate.

"Well I was trying not to rip Spike's head off and Spike was trying to sober up. It was quite interesting." Giles chuckled and looked entreatingly over at Spike.

"Nahhh Watcher. I'm not much of a storyteller. You take this one." Spike drawled, leaning back into the shadows, a slightly less than amused smile on his face.

"Right then. Like I said...Spike was completely off his gob and I was...coping with both he and the Buffybot."

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~GILES~

Midsummer Night
10:15 pm


"What are the weapons for, human? You think you're going to fight us?" The largest demon said, laughing as he looked Giles over. Giles just sized him up and shifted his grip on the handle of his axe.

"I believe so, if he can even stand." Giles jerked a thumb in Spike's direction. The blonde vampire shot him a dirty look and shifted in place, obviously torn between weaving upright and passing out. Of all the times for him to get drunk...

"Hey, I'm very sober, thank you very much." Spike protested, holding onto his axe with a shaking hand. If Giles could have hit him, he would have.

"Spike likes foreplay!" Giles turned his attention back to the Buffybot and prayed for patience. All he needed right now was for her to say something completely stupid. "I'm a Slayer!"

And that would be it.

"A Slayer?" A ghastly grin stretched over the demon's face and echoed on his friend's too. "I knew there was something about you. Not quite human..."

Spike snorted. "You have no idea!"

"Shut up Spike." Spike ignored him and went on, waving his axe in a lazy hand.

"Bloody hell, arre we going to fight or not?"

"Oh, yes, of course!" The biggest demon said, bowing a little and gesturing the vampire forward. Spike swung in immediately and was rewarded by a hard kick to his middle that sent him sprawling over a low tombstone. The demon laughed and launched himself on Spike's fallen form.

"Bloody hell." Giles muttered and swung around, kicking his own chosen demon in the stomach. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the Buffybot standing with her hands on her hips, waiting for the remaining demon to set upon her.

A split second later, his attention was drawn back to his own demon. He jumped over a child's headstone and swung his axe upward with a mighty swing. It caught the demon on his horn, breaking the hard apendage in two. The demon howled and slashed out at him.

The blow caught Giles on the shoulder and knocked him backward. The huge demon jumped on him, the feet Giles tried to bring up to kick it away tangling in the billowing black robes adorning the demon's frame. The demon landed flat out on top of him, forcing the breath out of his lungs in a whoosh. Giles struggled to bring the axe up and found the demon was pressing it to his neck, cutting off what remained of his air.

"Giles! I'll help you!" The Buffybot broke away from demon attempting to twist her head off and grabbed the demon by the end of his broken horn. The demon went flying, landing roughly against the outer wall of Spike's crypt. The Buffybot hurried after it, exchanging blow after blow.

"Right then. Switching partners." Giles muttered and turned on the Buffybot's forgotten demon. The demon growled and spun, lifting his massive, clawed hands and swiping at him. He dodged and dived behind a gravestone, catching sight of Spike in full vamp face head-butt his demon.

His attention swiveled back to his own demon as it loomed over the edge of the gravestone, reaching for him and hauling him back over the stone and onto the ground. Giles kicked him in the stomach and flipped to his feet, swinging the axe and clipping it on the arm. Orange blood flowed and dropped in big splatters on the grass. Giles followed the blow up with a punch that sent the demon reeling away.

Things started happening fast and Giles was lost in the fray as Spike collided with him and pushed him to the side.

"Watch out Watcher! Coming through!" Spike said, smiling widely, canines extended, yellow eyes flashing.

"Spike, you drunken lout!" Giles growled, pushing the vampire back. Spike pushed him back and screamed out when his chip fired.

"Bloody hell!"

Giles nearly smiled and then ducked as one of the demons swung at him from behind. This time Giles brought his axed up under the demon's chin and sliced the insect eyes down the middle. Bone split, wet flesh sliding along the edge of the axe blade and dropping on the ground. The demon screamed and dropped, body twitching as it died.

He pulled the axe blade out of the demon's face and turned back toward the remaining two, ignoring Spike's whimper as he tried to get a handle on the pain. The Buffybot had her demon backed into wall of Spike's crypt, her fists flying much faster than a normal human's should.

"Buffybot? Finish him!" Giles said in his most admonishing tone. The robot turned her head and regarded him with a reproachful look that was too reminiscent of her human counterpart. Giles's heart gave a painful squeeze and he tried to ignore the fact that the real thing was six feet under.

The bot spun and landed her foot in the demons' chest, going through the layers of skin and bone with the heel of her shoe. Blood welled and the demon screamed, reaching out a powerful arm and slamming into the Buffybot's head.

Giles winced as the head came free of the shoulders and tumbled across the grass and dirt, landing against Spike's boot. The vampire looked down into the vacant eyes and shuddered his vamp face away, collapsing next to the head. The demons's screams died down at the same time and he fell, along with the rest of the robot's body.

"What in Auturus...?" The remaining demon said, walking forward, great horns bobbing as he looked down at the body of his fallen fellow, his insect eyes sliding down to the mass of wires at the stub of the robot's neck. "The Slayer's a robot?"

"Shit."

The demon looked up and then smiled another ghastly grin. And with that, he took off, running off into Spike's crypt, back the way he'd come, leaving Giles with a drunken vampire and a broken bot.

Things were not going well.

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(end chapter)

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