Chapter Ten – Into the Fire

Dark. Alone. Floating on the darkness, her limbs weightless. She was sat on something solid, small slivers tearing into her clothes. She felt a jolt of movement below her. Tendrils lashed around her, biting into her skin. She felt herself being pulled, dragged under. Water filled her lungs and panic filled her head. Her heart raced as she thrashed against what held her. Her strength was waning…she couldn't fight anymore…

"Hey, we're here, B. Wake up."

Buffy blinked awake and slowly rediscovered her surroundings. The sun was bright on her face and the seatbelt was cutting into her shoulder. She could feel cramping in her leg from trying to curl up in the small seat of the car and her hand was asleep from her wrist being bent to support her head against the door of the car. Mr. Gordo was resting in her lap, his head pressed against her chest. All these sensations helped her ground herself back to reality – away from the nightmare. Buffy yawned, stretching as much as the tiny car allowed and stepped out of the car to join the boys who were talking amongst themselves while leaning against their own car. There was no darkness, no tendrils, no floating. She was not alone. She sidled up next to the boys and grabbed a coffee from the tray they had rested on the hood of the car. Dean slipped his arm around her waist, pulling her against his side.

"If Irving was this close, why did we need to leave so early?" Dean asked, glaring against the brightness of the sun.

Sam chuckled, "at least it was a quick drive."

"It would have felt a lot quicker if Sleeping Beauty here had stayed awake to keep me company."

Buffy grinned apologetically. She wasn't sure how long she had managed to keep her eyes open, but she was sure that she deserved a damn award for it. After her talk with Giles, she had stayed in the library with him for a few more hours. Originally it had been under the pretense of helping to research, but it had quickly turned into talking about what was to come and all the challenges they faced. She felt like it had been ages since she had the chance to hear Giles' take on everything they were doing with the headquarters and the training. After that, it had been a long night of trying to organize the girls following Kennedy's departure as well as her and Faith being away. For all the complaining Kennedy did about not being given enough credit or responsibility, that girl was doing a lot to keep the place running. Without her, there were far more roles to fill than anyone could have expected. Kennedy had left a pretty sizeable hole in their operations, but Buffy would be lying if she said she was sad to see her go. She expected a great deal more harmony in the house without Kennedy around.

On top of all that, she had to sort out some of their budget restraints when it came to repairs and renovations of their home which was fast becoming more of a compound than a home. It wasn't until the sun came up that she realized she had made a grievous error in trying to sort it all out before leaving. This was much more grown up and in charge than she had ever anticipated. Then again, she couldn't remember the last time she didn't have the weight of the world on her shoulders. She probably wouldn't even recognise that Buffy anymore; that Buffy was probably significantly less tired than this one.

"So where do we start?" Dean asked, snapping Buffy awake again. She hadn't realized she was dozing off on her feet.

"Well you both said that the first sign of something being really off was at the trailer park. Go back there?" Sam suggested.

It was a fair suggestion - that trailer home was definitely where things started to go to hell. It had finally started to come back to Buffy even just by being back in this town. All the blood that Faith had found when she visited the run-down trailer was all that was left of the monsters that were once Micah and Taylor. She remembered Tess nearly falling victim to those…things. That was how they had acquired the sword that Faith had found them with at the logging site – it had been found in the closet of one of the bedrooms, oddly enough. Even still, Buffy couldn't remember what had led her and Tess to the logging site from there. Faith had told her that one of the neighbors had pointed them on their way, but how this neighbour hadn't noticed the blood and sword they had was beyond her. She did remember that she had checked the place pretty thoroughly before the fight had broken out. There wasn't anything in that trailer that explained what was happening in the town, what had happened to them, or where all the missing girls were. Besides, by now the trailer was sure to be all boarded up or still crawling with cops. Not worth it.

"Alright, straight to the logging site then. We'll follow you guys," Dean said, hopping back into the Impala.

Hopefully the logging site wasn't discovered as a crime scene yet. Neither cops nor a cleanup crew would be very beneficial to their investigation. There was really no reason for it to be identified as a crime scene anyway. There were no victims there that Buffy or Faith remembered seeing. Apart from the blood-soaked ground, there was nothing to indicate to anyone else that something had gone horribly wrong there. In a little perfect town like this, it was almost hard to believe that they hadn't noticed that the logging site had fallen silent. Faith hadn't noticed just how creepily perfect this town was on her first visit, but it was hard to miss this pass through as she took her time driving the route to the work site. It was a quaint town to the point of cliché. White picket fences and matching landscaping, houses all painted in pastel colours and nauseating. It could be the perfect setting for a Stephen King novel if only they were in Maine. She didn't feel like she had missed anything after all.

Somehow the logging site was still even creepier than the perpetual suburb feeling. The air was thick and heavy – there was really no other description that was as appropriate. The part of their brains responsible for the fight or flight reaction was all but screaming 'run!' at them as the hairs on the back of their necks began to stand on end. To say it was unsettling would be a gross understatement, and yet they had to push forwards. There was no such thing as self-preservation when you spent your life fighting monsters and demons.

The boys slung shotguns over their shoulders, just in case. Both girls brought a blade with them – Buffy grabbing hold of her scythe while Faith opted for her trusty hatchet. The weaponry allowed them some sense of security at least, but did very little to dispel the creeping feeling of something being very wrong here. It was a rather grim walk as they left their vehicles behind and wandered down the long, dusty pathway that led to the main site. There were no signs of police vehicles or tape, which seemed promising; hopefully that meant no one had stumbled upon the blood spatter and empty site and found it worrisome. And empty it certainly was. There was no sound coming from the work site. No voices. No buzzing of saws. Not even a breeze blowing through the leaves or birds chirping in the air. It was still utterly abandoned. Was that thick feeling obvious even to all those normal people in the town? Had it been enough to keep them away? They started to wonder what had happened to all the people who worked here. The possibility that Micah and Taylor had been the lucky ones was disconcerting.

"We had gone through and explored some of the buildings when we got here. Looking for other people," Buffy recounted.

"Did you find anyone?"

Buffy shook her head, "I…I don't think so?"

The gaps in her memory were growing smaller and smaller even just by being back here, but there were still a good number of black spots that seemed to never fill in. There were some moments she'd rather not relive, but having entire time slots completely wiped clean was not on Buffy's list of 'okay things to happen.' Even if it meant reliving horrific moments and encounters, she'd rather have her mind intact – whole. She tried to ignore the dull ache that started to pound against her skull – a feeling that had only increased since stepping foot on the soil in Irving.

Following whatever part of the trail she could remember, she picked her way through the site once again. The other three followed quietly, only piping up to try and prod for further memories. The first building they came to probably wasn't one that she and Tess and gone through – it was locked tight and no windows appeared open or broken. Once Buffy re-oriented herself then carried on to another and another. Nothing was found in these buildings this time around, either. Buffy remembered the feeling of frustration when she and Tess had explored, a feeling that was once again welling up inside of her.

"There's nothing here," Dean commented, blowing the dust off of a desk.

"Not even blood," Buffy shook her head, "there had been so much before. Or at least, I thought so…maybe that was just the trailer…"

Usually a lack of people would mean something horrific had happened. It was all but certain that something terrible had taken place here, but there was no evidence of it save the heavy feeling in the air. There were no bodies. No signs of a struggle. No blood.

It had been upon exiting this little building, obviously an office of some sort, that Buffy and Tess had run into Eve. At least she thought so. There was a gap in her memory there, a blackspot with nothing to follow it except for the appearance of Eve. Perhaps they had meandered some more before Eve showed up. When Faith had arrived, she had run headlong into the logging site without a second thought, prompted by hearing Buffy scream. Buffy's discovery of Eve was much murkier than that, however. For all she knew, Eve could have found them and not the other way around.

"I'm not even sure how to find where we were when Eve showed up," Buffy admitted.

"I do," Faith said grimly. She could already see the patch of blood where she had discovered what was left of Tess.

It wasn't until she was standing over the bloody patch that Buffy could remember what had happened there. For once there was no static. No gaps. No questionable moments. And it was the one moment, if it had to happen at all, that she would have rather lost altogether. She wanted to stop it, to burn it out of her mind. That ache turned sharp and she felt as though she had been struck in the back of the head. Her lungs felt tight, but she refused to look away. This was what she had come here for, and she could not shy away from it now.

Faith spoke quietly, inaudible to the boys as this was something just for Buffy, "what happened to her?"

Buffy's gaze didn't lift from the patch of red soil and rocks as she spoke. When they had encountered Eve, the brunette woman, her back had been to them. Eve had spoken to them without ever turning around. Her voice seemed to echo from all around them, surrounding them and separating them from the world outside of this small site. That was how it felt anyway. She remembered wanting to cover her ears as the voice was loud and booming and shrill all at once. The first thing Eve had said made no sense at the time, but Buffy wished it had. She asked if Buffy remembered her. Things might have been different if she had known who Eve was the moment they stumbled upon her.

She remembered a sense of death and dread emanating off of the brunette. Of power. Not necessarily an evil sense of power, but certainly an ancient one. Now she remembered that same sense in Purgatory too. Without that information, though, Buffy and Tess hadn't even hesitated in attacking Eve. They both moved in to attack, a blade still tight in Tess' hand. They had come up against an invisible barrier that separated them from their target. Before they could even try to break through the barrier, Eve responded with her own attack. Without moving even a finger, Eve threw them both off of their feet. Eve cackled at them and asked if they had thought it would be that easy.

Dean interrupted her, "that's what she said in Purgatory."

"What?"

"You ran at Eve to tackle her, but went right through her like she was a projection or something. She laughed and said 'you thought it would be that easy?' That was in Purgatory."

Buffy knew she had been mixing up the nightmares, but she thought she had finally been able to separate them. It made it harder to piece together just what the hell she had lived through when she couldn't tell what memory belonged to what nightmare. Maybe Eve had said the same words here, but the fact that she didn't even remember that those words had been spoken in Purgatory made it all the harder to try and remember if something else had been said. She continued on, constantly checking with herself that she was remembering correctly. The lines were blurred and it was hard to bring it all into focus. Dean mentioning that Eve had been incorporeal during their battle on the mountain reminded her that Eve had been significantly less strong at that time. Whatever limit to her power Eve had in Purgatory didn't seem to exist here. Buffy wasn't sure how long they fought, but she knew that they were losing the entire time. At one point, Buffy had attracted all of Eve's attention. She was going on about how Buffy couldn't win before and she wouldn't be able to now. Somehow Eve had become distracted enough that she lost track of Tess, allowing Tess to get up behind her. Tess had drawn back the sword and plunged it straight through Eve's chest. Eve stopped her tirade she had been pouring on Buffy and grinned maliciously. Inhumanly. Tess realized that her attack had done nothing and withdrew the sword, ready to swing again but -

Buffy stopped. Her words caught in her throat. It was hard enough to see it happen all over again, but to speak the words? To say it out loud and make it real again? The loss of Tess, especially in such a gruesome way, had affected Faith as well. She needed – deserved – closure as well. Even still, this just wasn't something Buffy could do. Looking at Faith, the small blonde shook her head apologetically. She was so sorry. Faith seemed to understand. It was for the best. The images of what happened had been burned into Buffy's memory, and Faith didn't need to suffer the same.

But that didn't stop the whole scene from unraveling in her mind as she stared down into the stained ground. Buffy didn't know how to describe what had happened first. Eve had reached her hand out towards Tess who froze in her tracks. Tess tried to struggle against the invisible hold that Eve had on her, but it made no difference – there was no way to break free. What she had seen next was all too familiar having suffered the same at Eve's hand. Eve tightened her hand into a fist, and Buffy now knew that Eve was twisting the girl's insides into knots, squeezing her lungs, her heart. Blood erupted through Tess' lips as Eve tore at her organs. It was a gruesome scene and Buffy couldn't bring herself to put it into words. Faith didn't need to know that Eve had latched onto Tess' throat and dug her nails into the girl's soft flesh. She didn't need to imagine the sound of blood gurgling through Tess' lips as Eve ripped her throat out before tossing her aside like nothing but a rag doll. Buffy could still hear the clang of the sword hitting the ground as Tess landed. Even though it was hopeless and foolish, Buffy had hoped that maybe, just maybe, Tess would fight to her feet. Buffy remembered a scream, but she wasn't sure if it was Tess' scream of pain or her own in terror and anguish. She did remember the sinking feeling that she would be joining Tess, but before she could fight back, Eve had returned her attention to the veteran Slayer.

"She had me by the throat and asked again if I remembered her," Buffy continued.

Realization dawned on The Woman's face, "oh, I see. It's so obvious, but you don't see it, do you? No, doubtless you have no idea of what was taken from you. Would you like to? It would be so easy. Just a little touch and you'll be whole again. You want to be whole, don't you?"

"Stop fighting, Buffy. This won't hurt a bit," that vicious smile returned, "I'm sure it'll hurt a lot, though."

Buffy furrowed her brow, "I remember an agonizing pain when she touched me. There was a bright light – red. I fought against her but couldn't shake free. Then suddenly she let me go and I was falling to the ground. It all goes dark after that."

"I hit her with an ax," Faith added. She remembered the moment well. "That's why she let you go."

The two Slayers looked at one another, both unsure of where to go from there. Buffy wanted to say thank you again, but it somehow didn't feel like the right thing to say. It didn't seem like enough. Faith wanted to say she was sorry, again, but what difference would it make? Instead they stood there in a quiet stalemate, eyes locked.

"We should look around here then," Sam's voice interrupted the reverie, "maybe you found her doing something? Or you stumbled on something she didn't want you to see?"

"Sure," Buffy agreed, "let's spread out." She wandered off on her own before anyone could argue the suggestion. She knew the suggestion was stupid, but she needed some space. She could only hope that the others understood that.

This search turned up about as much as the previous ones had. Nothing. There was no trace of Eve. No trace of what she was doing here or why. No trace of any people – neither survivors nor victims. The more time Buffy spent looking at the site, seeing the entirely normal trees and the very solid ground, the less she mistook the area for Purgatory. The twisted trees and stench of death and decay seemed farther and farther away. She started to separate the heavy air feeling here from the stagnant air in Purgatory. It was still hard to come to terms with the fact that both nightmares were real, but being able to reconcile them brought her one step closer to being at peace with it. Maybe the lines would stop being so blurred eventually.

"Hey I got something over here!" Sam's voice called in the distance.

They found him standing in front of a building larger than any of the others. It was probably a storeroom of some sort, maybe to store the logs after being cut down, or maybe to store equipment. It was their best guess anyways. There were no windows to give them a view of the inside of the building, giving it a sense of mystery and, when paired with the rest of the site, a sense of foreboding as well. It would have been completely innocent looking if it hadn't been for the smear of blood across the main door. It was long dried on, but it was very clearly in the shape of a large, but definitely human, hand. The print trailed towards the seam of the doors, as if someone had been dragged inside. More blood was found on the padlock that crossed through the handles on the door. The lock was old and rusty, but it looked like it had been recently disturbed, making it look out of place. Nothing else in the entire site looked like it had been disturbed at all.

"I could pick that, but it might take a while," Faith said, looking closely at it. The butt of a shotgun came crashing down on the padlock, breaking it into three pieces. "Eh, good enough," Faith shrugged as Dean smiled cheekily.

Faith and Dean took hold of the doors and reefed on them. The doors seemed to be stuck on something, but they were able to pry them open by digging their heels into the ground. Daylight didn't reach through the opening, instead casting shadows of the four people standing at the threshold. Further in, all that greeted them was darkness. There was no reason to believe that there was still power running through the logging site, but they had to hope there was. Dean reached in to the side and fumbled for the panel that should bring the lights to life.

A buzzing sound echoed through the cavernous building. The lights flickered once. Twice. Grotesque shadows were thrown through the room before disappearing into darkness once more. The lights flickered a third time and finally held. Now they knew where all the people were.

There were images that had been burned into their heads over the years. A countless number of grotesque monsters and grisly scenes. Death and despair and horrid victims that would never leave them. The loss of friends and family. Even their own deaths. What they saw in the storeroom joined those in being etched forever into their minds. The workers had fallen victim to Eve's sick experiments. Some of them had clearly not been able to withstand the transformation she had tried to force them through. Their bodies were contorted and bent into awkward angles. There was blood on their faces, carving trails of pain into their skin. Some of them had vomited a mix of stomach acid and blood. It was an awful way to go, but they were the lucky ones. Those who had survived the transformation didn't appear to have lasted much longer. The mutations must not have been sustainable. The bodies were in varying stages of transforming when they had died. Some looked as though their insides had been liquefied while others looked like they had turned to not much more than mulch. Whatever creature Eve had tried to create had obviously failed, and spectacularly so.

Taking a step closer, Buffy tripped over something that her foot had got caught on. Under her feet was a body of a girl, just a few years younger than herself. She was dressed differently than the rest, probably the office girl. It was probably some part time job, maybe just for the summer. Maybe she was still in high school. None of that high school innocence was present on her face, though. Her mouth had lolled open and resting against her lip was a secondary mouth with sharp looking fangs. Her eyes, stuck wide open and staring into nothingness, were no longer white but stained entirely red, a haunting look if Buffy had ever seen one.

"I think she was going to turn into the monsters that Micah and Taylor did," Buffy said, kneeling down to take a better look.

"So they were here?" Faith asked, joining Buffy.

It seemed likely that the two men had been a part of the mass transformation but had escaped somehow. Maybe they had been the ones to padlock the door. They couldn't have known what was happening to them, they probably thought they were going to be safe if they got away. They had probably been terrified.

Buffy got up and wandered away from Faith. She started looking through the rest of the bodies, looking for anything that may help them to understand what had happened here. Dean, who had seen this sort of mess left behind by Eve before, tried to help her, but she didn't seem to be paying much attention.

"You good?" Sam asked.

"Great. Five by five," Faith answered, with a sarcastic thumb's up gesture.

"Ya, that lack of smile really helped sell that."

Faith shrugged, "good as it gets, then. Can I ask you something?"

"Shoot."

She was curious as to why Sam had come with them. Buffy and herself? They had to do this. They needed the closure and they needed to face the horrors they had forgotten here. Dean had come because he was very obviously in love with Buffy. He wanted to protect her and help her where he could – even Faith could tell that there was no way that Dean was going to let her do this on her own. But Sam? He could have stayed back. He could have just kept researching with the nerd crew and done way more good. He didn't have to see this carnage and put himself at risk. Why put himself through this?

Sam clearly took offense to that statement, but shook it off quickly. Research was important sure, but so was staying with his brother. They were a team and they had always found sticking together was better. There were too many times in the past that they would have died if not for the other. There was no way to know what they'd run into in this town when they came back. Plus, he could do the research thing on the road, too.

"You didn't think your brother would be safe with two Slayers?"

"Not that. Just…he's my brother, ya know?"

Faith didn't, but she could respect it. The fact that he cared enough about his brother to stick with him was sort of…touching? As long as he could handle himself, that was good enough for her.

"Well, it's a good thing that you're good company," Faith said, doing her best to give him a smile.

Sam smiled back.

"Can we get out of here now?" Dean asked as he walked up, his hand tightly clasping Buffy's.

"Please."

ӁӁӁ

"It takes time, Dawn. Patience."

Dawn sighed, "I am patient! But literally nothing is happening."

After she'd had her talk with Castiel about The Key and power, Dawn had kept everything they said to herself because she knew that if she told anyone they would all freak out. All she'd hear would be 'but it's not safe Dawn' or 'you shouldn't do that Dawn' or 'you're too young to do that Dawn.' She was so sick of being treated with kid gloves. Finally she had the chance to do something on her own - to be something more than just the Slayer's kid sister. Finally someone believed she could be more than just some liability. Someone was finally letting her do something. She wasn't even sure that she believed Castiel, so really, why worry everyone for nothing?

When Buffy left the house to go chase down leads, Dawn thought it was the perfect opportunity. Buffy wouldn't be hovering over her shoulder and Willow and Giles would be too busy in Buffy's absence to really even notice Dawn. Castiel had seemed hesitant to start so soon, but if there was some big bad threatening the world and an apocalypse on the horizon, soon was the best option. Maybe Dawn could even be of some assistance in the coming battles. After all, Castiel did say that both her power and Eve were unknown to the angels. Maybe that was a sign?

"I understand your frustration, but the slow progress may be vital to your success."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Once you are able to tap into your power, it may be difficult, even dangerous, to control," he explained, "perhaps it is best if a great deal of patience is built before then." His hope was that she would be able to better control the power that would be unleashed. At this time, if she could tap into the power of The Key, there was a good chance that it would not only harm the girl, but quite possibly others as well.

That was another source of frustration for Dawn. She had no idea what she was supposed to be tapping into. She had no idea how to even try. Castiel wasn't sure either, and that made it all the more frustrating when she was expecting him to be her sensei or whatever. If it was tied to emotions or feelings somehow, the angel certainly wasn't going to be much help, either. It was basically trial and error at this point, and any thought she had of what to try and access in her mind had so far proved ineffective. Try as she might, she couldn't get anything to happen. It didn't matter how much she focused on her attempt, she couldn't get anywhere.

"Shouldn't I feel…something? Like a tingle or something?"

"I cannot tell you. Only you will know what it feels like when –" He was cut off by Dawn shushing him

Xander wandered into the kitchen where Dawn and Castiel were standing. Xander was the least likely to care that Dawn was experimenting with power or magic, but she still didn't want him to find out.

"Score, you made coffee. Thanks Dawnster," Xander grinned sleepily as he grabbed the pot. He had been working almost non-stop trying to get their armoury into a functional state. "I think Will was looking for you."

"Oh, okay. She in the library?"

Xander nodded and Dawn headed off in search of Willow without so much as a glance back at the angel. Xander nervously drummed his fingers on the coffee mug he held in his hands. This was the first time he had been alone with Castiel and a sense of awkwardness loomed in the air. Ever since it had been revealed that he was an angel, Xander had been going over this moment in his head. He needed an answer, but he wasn't sure how to pose the question. He wasn't even sure he was ready for the answer. But he was ready to quiet his fears and halt the nightmares that had been plaguing him since they left Sunnydale.

"Castiel?"

The angel seemed surprised that Xander was speaking to him. It was the first time since arriving in this house that the man had acknowledged the angel. It was the first time that anyone seemed to actually want to talk to him at all. He encouraged Xander to continue.

"You uh, you know where people end up, right?" Xander asked.

Cas furrowed his brows, "I am unsure as to what you are asking."

"When someone dies, you know if they make it to heaven or…elsewhere. Right?"

Castiel nodded and so Xander continued on. There were so many different dimensions just outside of their understanding that he had never been concerned. Upon finding out that a place like Purgatory existed, he couldn't banish the worry from his mind. If monsters went to Purgatory when they died...then…is that where Anya ended up? She had spent thousands of years inflicting pain and torment on humans. Her soul, if it still existed at all, was far from clean and pure. She had done a great deal of good in her last years, fought beside the Scoobies to save the world time and time again, but could it have been enough to avoid the punishment of Purgatory? Or was she sentenced to suffer just as Buffy had?

A long pause hung in the air. Castiel closed his eyes and said not a word as the minutes ticked by. Xander was unsure what to do in this time, so he settled for drumming his fingers against his coffee mug just to give his hands something to do.

"I cannot sense her signature," Cas said, as though that would answer Xander's question.

"And that means?"

"I do not know where she is."

Not being able to lock onto someone's signature meant that she was out of reach of angels. It meant that she was not in heaven, which was where Xander had hoped she'd go. It was a bit of a pipe-dream, he knew that, but he still dared to hope. What else could he do? No one ever wanted to hear that the person they love ended up anywhere but the paradise that was supposed to be heaven. It also meant, however, that she wasn't in hell, which was a small bit of good news. At least she was not living in the torment and despair that hell promised. Castiel was sure he would find her if she was stuck in limbo, but there was no trace of her there, either. Not being able to find her did leave the distinct chance that she had been sent to Purgatory.

That was not the answer Xander had wanted to hear and even Castiel could see the anguish he had caused by relaying the information.

Cas did his best to soften his voice, "for what it is worth. I do not believe she is in Purgatory. She may be in a dimension I cannot reach. There are several dimensions that have remained uncontacted by heaven, and therefore I cannot read who, or what, resides in those dimensions. Or perhaps I cannot lock onto her signature because she only had a human signature for a short period of time. Her soul was long destroyed."

It did not offer the comfort that he had hoped. The uncertainty was just as bad as if Xander had learned that she was in a hell dimension if he was being honest. Xander tried to remain hopeful that whatever dimension she had found herself in was one of the good ones. The thought that she was living somewhere dark and evil was more than he could handle. No matter how many awful things she did, Xander still couldn't bring himself to believe that Anya deserved punishment for her centuries as a demon.

But either way, she was gone. Gone beyond anything they could do to reach her.

ӁӁӁ

The four were sat around a picnic table in a park, the logging site far behind them. They wanted to put as much distance between it and them as they could, but they felt like they couldn't leave Irving quite yet. They hadn't discovered anything. No new leads. No idea of what Eve was even doing here. Other than filling in some blank spaces for Faith and Buffy, this entire trip had been a waste of time. A total bust.

Buffy got up to pace, "so what, we go back? Empty handed?"

"Not sure what else we can do," Sam answered.

"We needed something to go off of. This was all we had."

There really wasn't a clear path anymore. Coming back to Irving had been obvious, but now what were they meant to do? The books had turned up nothing on Eve so far, as evidenced by the lack of phone calls from back home, and they had no idea where she was. She could be halfway across the world by now. Were they meant to just wait until she showed up again? Killed another one of their own? Massacred an entire town rather than just a small work site? The body count was already staggering, and Buffy was loathe to let it get any higher.

"What we saw back there? We can't let it happen again," Faith said.

Buffy was resolved on that front, "it won't."

"Except it will. Over and over until we find her and stop her," Dean said grimly.

The boys had already explained to Buffy and Faith how it was that Eve made new monsters. The experiments she did in piecing together different aspects in hopes of making something perfect. They had already shared everything about their previous encounter with her, right down to way she could shapeshift almost flawlessly. She was a formidable foe, and one that they had gotten lucky to defeat at that. As much as they wanted to agree that they would stop another massacre like the one at the logging site, they knew it wasn't true. Eve would wrack up an even more staggering body count long before they would find her. That was the grim truth of it.

The thought of going back home empty handed did not appeal to Buffy. In a last ditch effort to avoid that, she decided to call back and see if there was any news. Maybe the crew back home had found something that could point them in a new direction. Something. Anything.

"Buffy! I was just about to call you," Andrew answered.

"Hey Andrew. Do you have something for me?"

"Can I talk to Sam or Dean?" He asked excitedly.

Buffy looked towards the boys, "you wanna talk to Sam or Dean?" The two men shook their heads, a look of fear and desperation in their eyes. Buffy had to do her best not to laugh. "They've actually just gone to get us something to eat. I'll just have to suffice."

Though he was disappointed, Andrew proceeded to share the information that had been found since the four had left the Cleveland house. Nothing had yet turned up in the books, but the news had shared some interesting information. Apparently there had been several towns in New Mexico and now Texas that had been reported seeing what they called a Mujer de la Muerte – a lady of death.

People had been reportedly seeing a dark haired woman lurking in the shadows just before a tragedy took place. She was seen on the porch of a house peeking in the windows the night before a man supposedly killed his entire family and then himself. Andrew was pretty sure that wasn't what actually happened, based on the autopsy reports that Willow had retrieved from the police files. The woman had also been seen on the rooftop of the elementary school the morning that it burned to the ground. The weird thing was, though, not one of the students were found in the burnt out wreckage. No survivors. No bodies. It was like they had vanished before the fire began.

There were several other reports like these which had piqued the interest back at headquarters. It may not be much to go on, but it was certainly worth checking out. It wasn't like they had anything else to do for the time being.

"Andrew, that's amazing. How did you find all these stories?"

She could hear the excitement in his voice as Andrew spoke, "I've been working on this program. It scans for patterns in news stories and kicks back reports to me. Right now I'm getting a lot of things that don't really matter to us, but if I can tweak the coding I should be able to have it search for key words and then we can get reports from all across the world not just the states. And I'm hoping that we can –"

"Okay, okay!" Buffy interrupted him. She was interested, impressed even, but they were definitely wasting time. She needed to know the nitty-gritty and she needed it now.

Apologising, Andrew continued to explain what else they had learned. There seemed to be a pattern in the way this Mujer de la Muerte moved. It seemed to be appearing in towns with very large Mexican communities – hence the name, he supposed. It was also moving decidedly south-western. It wasn't a sure thing, but he was pretty sure he could identify the next two or three towns that may be visited by this spectre.

"Good enough for me. Text me the details and we'll get a move on."

"Sure thing."

"Oh, and…thanks, Andrew. That was good work," Buffy added on. She was pretty sure she could hear him smile through the phone as he hung up.

"Did I hear right? That we're moving on?" Faith asked, also up and pacing the grass.

Buffy nodded.

It was time to get back into the car. They had a long drive ahead of them – almost an entire country to cross – but it would probably be more useful than this trip had been. This tour of the country was just getting started.

Pantherfan16 - I always felt like Buffy deserved an explanation for why Giles left - and I always felt like Giles deserved to have a reason that wasn't totally stupid haha. The whole "standing in the way" thing was not acceptable to me - especially considering she was like 20 years old man. Had to fix it haha. There's definitely some fun to come on the road, can't wait!

JMHUW - Oh good haha. I was like "Oh damn, do I change things?" haha. I don't know why I was so attached to that stuffed pig, but I felt I had to include it. Buffy deserves something like that. Hope you enjoy the road trips they're going on!

Bobisnotmyrealname - I was pretty excited to write a road trip for the four of them, so I hope it's fun to read as it continues on! I'm hoping that Sam can loosen up a little bit too...

Dustiniz117 - I'm glad you've enjoyed it so far! That idea does promise a great deal of fun...I might have to integrate it into another story later on =)