Author's note: I began this a while back and got to a point that I didn't want to finish it. Now I've decided that with the turn of events on the show, I will complete it after all.
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solutions
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Giles was deep into his handwritten notes and moldering tomes when Buffy made an appearance the next afternoon. After knocking on his front door for several minutes, she tried peering in through the window and saw her watcher sitting at his kitchen table absorbed in his research.
She was hesitant about disturbing him. He had been spending every spare moment searching for a way to get Anya back from the demon realm she had been taken to and he hadn't made much progress despite his resolve to help the girl. Buffy hadn't realized how much the former demon meant to Giles, but then again they had been spending a lot of time in one another's company ever since Anya had taken the job at The Magic Box. She just wished there was something she could do to help.
She tried the doorknob and was slightly surprised to find it unlocked.
"Giles?"
He was startled by the sound of her voice, his head jerking back toward the front door as he inadvertently knocked some of his papers to the floor. "Buffy? Oh, I'm sorry, did you knock?" His hands rubbed at his temples, relieving some small amount of the pressure that had settled there.
"Yeah, I did. What's up with all the intensity?"
Taking a deep breath, he turned fully to face her. "Spike came by last night once I had returned from Xander's apartment. He wanted to bring me something he won in a poker match. He thought it might help."
"What was it? Chicken's feet?" She quirked a crooked grin, attempting to lighten the mood in the heavy atmosphere of Giles' kitchen. "You know, I really wonder about him some— Is that what I think it is?" She was caught off guard by the pendant that dangled from Giles' fingers, leaning forward to see it more closely.
"It's a vengeance amulet. I believe I may have found the spell to open the portal as well."
"Wow. I mean, we've got to tell Xander. He'll be so happy— Why are you shaking you head? This is a good thing, isn't it?" She settled into a chair, her emotions in a whirl of excitement and confusion. "Why don't you look so happy about this? What aren't you telling me?"
Giles closed his eyes for a moment before he began speaking. "Yes, it is a good thing, I only wish we had come by it sooner." He leveled his eyes at her. "We will be able to perform the spell tonight but I would rather do so without Xander's knowledge. We don't know what has befallen Anya in the time she's been in D'Hoffryn's realm. We don't have any way of knowing her condition and I would prefer…"
"You want to play it safe and not involve Xander until we're certain she's alive," Buffy stated.
"And more or less sane…yes."
"Okay fine, I'll go. I mean, I'm the slayer, right? I'm the one who should go." Buffy ran through a mental list of things to get done in the interim between leaving Giles' and stepping through the portal.
"And I agree, but I would like Spike to accompany you."
Buffy stared at her watcher in incredulity. "What? No, nuh uh, no way."
The front door burst open in a flurry of smoke and dark blankets with the opportune arrival of the peroxide vampire. Standing upright again and tossing the blanket aside, he dusted off the arms of his leather duster. "What'd I miss?"
~~~~
Every muscle, bone, and tendon in Anya's body ached. She couldn't sit up anymore lest the pain intensify and so she lay curled on her side, her cheek pressed to the cool stone floor beneath her. She couldn't keep straight in her mind what was happening to her any longer, nor did she find that she cared.
Closing her eyes against the thick darkness, she envisioned Xander's apartment. She could see every minute detail laid out before her, from the slight pebbling of the textured walls to the dish of spare change that sat on the counter. She could even see Xander lounging in front of the television, his feet propped up on the coffee table and one of his mindless television programs running. If she tried, she could almost feel the fuzzy carpet beneath her toes and smell the air freshener she had bought for him. She wanted to be home again.
A distant grating sound assailed her ears and she stilled herself against Jharahalien's return. She could survive this, if only she could hold on to her memory of Xander, she could survive.
~~~~
The moon was bright in the night sky, bathing the park in blue-tinged light as Giles stood uneasily next to Spike and Buffy. Spike's inclusion had been his idea, but he felt no better in spite of that fact. He only hoped the two of them together would be able to handle whatever they might find at the end of the portal.
"So, let's get this show on the road, huh?" Buffy said. "I betcha Anya's getting' a little tired of waiting for us on the other side."
"Yes, let's not make lovie wait unnecessarily now," Spike agreed.
"Are you sure you'll be able to handle this?" Giles asked, his eyes settling on the slayer.
Buffy grinned. "Like I said, I'm the slayer. No big. Besides, it won't be my first foray into demonic realms remember… We'll do okay, and we'll bring Anya back." She cast a sidelong look at her temporary partner. "Of course, I may leave Spike behind."
"Completely understandable," Giles allowed.
"Hey now."
Before Spike could complete his complaint, Giles uttered the simple incantation that enabled the amulet to open the portal.
Buffy looked up into the swirling mass of clouds and colors and shook her head. "These things always look so cheesy, like something in a bad science fiction movie." Turning to address Spike, she added, "Well, what are you waiting for?"
At the bleached vampire's charge toward the center of the vortex, Buffy followed, casting one last look back at Giles before she was swallowed up by the portal and spat out in a stone antechamber very unlike the grassy green park on the other end.
"Well, that's one experience I'm not planning on repeating but once more, to get out of here." She looked around at the walls and spider web of tunnels and hallways that spread out from the apex of the antechamber. "Any ideas about which way we should go first?"
Spike looked slowly around at his surroundings. He'd known a good number of vengeance demons but he'd never visited their home realm, he'd never heard about it either, something he discovered to be immensely irritating. He was about to tell Buffy to sod off when he caught a familiar whiff of something. "Yeah," he answered gruffly, "This way. Lisenka's still here."
"Are you sure? Shouldn't it be just as dangerous for her to be here as for Anya? Why wouldn't she leave… unless she's been locked in a dungeon somewhere…" Buffy stared at the door Spike stopped in front of. Thick wood and iron bands prevented them from entering the room but Spike ignored them both as he tore at the door with his bare hands.
"I could use a bit of help, slayer. That is, unless you want D'Hoffryn to find us here breaking two of his captives out of their dungeons." Spike huffed with exertion but his attempt wasn't in vain. By the time Buffy got her hands on one of the bands, it had already begun to give way and after two good tugs it clattered to the ground.
Spike didn't waste any time in removing the rest of the door and plunging into the room. "Lisenka! I know you're in here, demon-girl."
A scurrying sound seemed to come from the far corner.
Spike dipped his hand into his pocket to retrieve his lighter, flicking it open and causing the flame to leap into the stagnant air, throwing dancing shadows on the walls and filth-covered floor. He knew what they would find, had known it before the girl's name had left his lips. The sent he had followed had changed from merely being indicative of Lisenka, to being the scent of carrion.
As the light danced across the floor, rats scurried away from their prize, leaving behind the sight Spike had hoped not to see.
"Is she…" Buffy's voice was choked and came out strangled. The deaths of demons and hellbeasts wasn't anything new to her but she still had trouble accepting the deaths of innocent humans. Lisenka had, at one time, been a demon, but no more. The girl who lay crumpled against the far wall of the cell had been nothing more than a human trying to do what she felt was best.
"She is," Spike confirmed, turning and leaving the room. "Come on, she's toast but Anya may not be."
"Yeah," she agreed, "let's go find Anya."
The wound their way through the catacombed passageways, relying solely on Spike's sense of smell. Buffy kept close watch on their backs, peering into each dark crevice they passed. She wondered how Anya had lived in such a place for a thousand years. Fifteen minutes there and she was already longing for a shower.
"Hey now, what's this?" Spike muttered, coming to a fork in the hallway.
"What is it?"
"If I were a bettin' man," he began.
"Spike, you won the amulet in a poker game, I thinks that makes you a betting vampire at any rate," Buffy replied.
"Okay, then I'd say she's in the second room on the right."
Buffy cut her eyes at her companion before walking up to the door he had indicated. "But it isn't even closed all the way… If they were holding her against her will wouldn't they want to lock her in so she wouldn't try to escape?"
Spike shrugged his shoulders and waited to see what the slayer would do next.
Buffy touched the door but didn't push it open. She didn't want to see Anya crumpled against the floor and being used as rat fodder. She couldn't bring herself to do it.
to be continued soon
