Chapter 6

"Let's get going back. We've been out here awhile." Cordelia spoke up. She rubbed her arms. It was getting cold and the fog was creeping up on them.
"I don't have much more to gather. There I see it up ahead." Anya said. They moved up the road a little more. Cordelia was getting uncomfortable. They had strayed to far already.
"I'm going back." Cordelia announced. She headed back the way she came.
"Fine go ahead." Xander sneered.
"Wait up." Oz caught up to her. "Have you noticed how divided everything is now? Like LA vs Sunnydale."
"I know. I didn't mean to be like that to Xander. I guess we've all been apart so long we've created all new lives for ourselves that we don't fit together as well."
"Wow. Impressive." Oz whistled.
"These plants are starting to reek. What, have we been out here like 3 hours already?"
"I don't think we should get to far away from them. We don't know what's out here. Let's just wait."
"I thought we didn't want to be near them?" Cordelia stomped her foot.
"I just wanted to cool it off for a minute. I don't think it's smart to separate."
"Fine." Cordelia gave in. They stood around for about 10 minutes. "Let's go back. It's been to long." She went back down the road to find Xander and Anya. But they weren't where she left them. "Xander? Stop hiding. I'm cold let's go!" She called.
"Yo guys. Don't joke!" Oz yelled. Their voices echoed across the field.
"I don't think they are here." Cordelia said, a little unnerved.
"Look." Oz pointed at a small bit of glowing light. It flew through the air towards them. Cordelia dropped the herbs and gripped Oz's arm.
"Your friends they have strayed, a fairy land trade, unassuming fools, don't obey the rules, and now they are in trouble." the fairy taunted Cordelia and Oz.
"That's it you damn fairy. Give me back my friends." Cordelia growled. She rolled up her sleeves and stood, legs parted.
"Not a good idea Cordy. Let's go back and tell Giles. He'll know what to do."
"You know how dumb Xander is. He'll be a goner in a second."
"You don't give him enough credit. He's made it this far. Let's go. Anya will be with him remember." Oz picked up Cordelia's lost herbs and began heading back towards the castle at a fast pace. She glared at the laughing fairy and followed.
"This isn't over." Cordelia warned the fairy.
Meanwhile...
"Xander?" Anya called as she fell.
"Alice this rabbit hole is to big." Xander called back sarcastically. He bounced against a wall and fell some more.
"Try to grab me Xander. We shouldn't get separated." Anya called they sought each other out, their arms out precariously, with a chance of them breaking at the roll they were going at.
"Grab you? How do I know that's a good idea? It was your idea to stray and then your idea to pick something off this tree. All that damn fairy had to do was push!"
"Well I'm scared so take my hand." Xander pulled his hand away from the dirt walls and grabbed out. He managed to grab Anya's shirt and moved to her hand from there.
"I'm not that eager to get where we are going." Xander murmured.
"Neither am I."
"I just thought of something." Xander paused and in that pause they stopped rolling quite so hard and bumped along. They were almost to the end of the tunnel.
"What?" Anya looked at him scared.
"Everyone is trying to close the gateway. What if they close it while we are down here?" They hit the bottom of the tunnel and fell out into a meadow that looked very much like the one they had left.
Back at the Castle...
"Help! Help!" Cordelia and Oz raced into the castle. She was screaming at the top of her lungs.
"What is it girl?" A druid asked sharply.
"Xander and Anya strayed to far! They fell into the Gateway. We told them not to go so far."
"Oh dear. This is a disaster. "The druid moaned rushing to tell his friends.
"No yelling or nothing?" Cordelia looked down the hallway that the druid ran down.
"Hey guys." Oz and Cordelia turned around to see Buffy and Angel dragging themselves inside, covered in twigs and dirt and dragon blood.
"Hey Oz." Buffy smiled in spite of her appearance. "Hey Cordy."
"You both look terrible. Did you get them?" she commented.
"Yeah. We slew some dragons."
"Did you want to tell them Cordelia or were we not gonna?" Oz spoke up.
"What is it Oz?" They both became alert.
"Oh just that Xander and Anya strayed to far from the castle and were sucked into the Fairy world and in my opinion could very well be stuck there with those feather brain druids running around." She said in one breath.
"That's really going to make it difficult to close the gateway." Angel said sadly.
"Warriors!" A druid scuttled in. "Please tell us you have at least killed some dragons?"
"Yeah. We slew 2 dragons. It was a hell of a lot of work." Buffy grumbled.
"Oh dear. I knew it would be. There are more out there. We can't seem to stop it. Your Mr Giles has consulted the books. He said something about the 5th son of the fairy king finding a phoenix and using its feathers to pry open the doors. He has caught a unicorn and by using its blood he can keep the gates open. Such crime to kill a unicorn. The Willow girl thinks she knows how to close the doors." Angel looked at Buffy and the babbling druid.
"You need to chill out man. Why don't you go take a nap or something?" Oz advised.
"There is no time!" The man shrieked.
"Let's go find Willow. If there's a way to counteract that dumb power hungry fairy's spell she might know it." Buffy whispered to Angel. He nodded and waited till she went first. He was afraid to touch her. He wondered if it would dredge up those weird past life memories.
They found Willow in a room that was every witches dream. It was stocked with everything for any spell you might possibly have to do, except the one that would close the gateway.
"I just don't know Buffy. There's no spell strong enough to counteract blood of a unicorn. It is so rare and so coveted." Willow said as she fiddled with a potion. "The best we can hope for is a temporary one. That would buy us time. At any rate the binding spells aren't very effective."
"Willow." Buffy stopped her. "Xander and Anya fell through the gateway." Willow stopped stirring her potion. Her face went white.
"How do we get them out? There has to be away."
"Someone might have to go in after them." A druid came over. "We shouldn't have let the mortals come. They are more trouble than they are worth."
"Hey. They've saved this planet hundreds of times over. They are very good at this. They just helped a little to much." Cordelia marched in, coming to the defense of the people she had ragging on not a half an hour before.
"I could go if you needed me too." Oz spoke up. "Maybe you could like tie a rope and hold it on the other end. So you can like pull us all back out or something."
"Oh Oz." Willow sighed. Her eyes lit up. "It's so good to see."
"Well we will keep it in mind. I think you should get back to the potion young lady. "The stuffy druid said.
"I've missed you too Willow." Xander's words were called back to mind. In a way he wanted to win her back. But then it might be better to leave it the way it was.
"You guys should go. I need to get back to work." She said gently. They wandered out of the room.
"I'm going to go upstairs to change." Angel said disappearing up a staircase.
"I'm rather gross too." Buffy said going up an opposite way.
"I have never seen 2 people with more sexual tension than them and probably never will." Cordelia observed.