Ethan breezed ahead, appearing oblivious to Willow's anxiety.  "We should pick a direction.  I really have no sense of which way to go. Which way do you ladies prefer?" 

His smile made Anya's skin crawl.  She couldn't believe some unhappy lover hadn't wished him into hell long before this.  "Well, my intuition tells me we should go right."

"Then we should go left," said Willow.

"Why do you always assume I'm wrong?" demanded Anya.

Willow tried to pull herself out of her daze.  "Oh.  I mean.  Well, last time you followed your intuition didn't you think you were engaged to Giles and end up surrounded by bunnies and arguing with him?"

"Well yes, but that was due to you abusing magic.  Again."

Rayne began walking to the left.  "So why did you think you were engaged to Rupert?"

"It's a long story," said Willow, falling into step.

"Willow wanted a short cut to make everything better and used a forgetfulness spell, which not surprisingly went awry and put us all in danger.  That's why Tara left her.  See, that wasn't so long."

"Gee thanks Anya," said Willow, her voice dripped with sarcasm.  "I really wanted to share those details with him."

Ethan waved it off.  "Oh, no worries.  I have done far worse.  But I don't see why memory loss made you think you were engaged to Ripper."  He gave Anya another skin crawling smile.  "Unless there was an unconscious attraction that drew you to each other."

"Oh no," Anya denied.  "I was engaged to Xander.  He's the one I'm attracted to.  I just got confused."

"So when's the big date?"

"Big date?"  Anya looked startled.  "Giles and I are not going on any sort of date, let along a big one."

Willow looked at her curiously.  "He meant the wedding, Anya."

"Oh."

"The wedding was a couple of weeks ago," explained Will.

"Then congratulations!" he said, patting Anya on the back.  She blinked rapidly and walked faster, pulling away from them.  When they caught up with her, Ethan spoke up. "I take it the marriage didn't come to fruition?  It was Rupert, wasn't it?"

"No! It had nothing to do with him! Let go of your obsession with Rupert before I slap you!" Anya shouted.  "Xander changed his mind about wanting to marry me.  I tried to be what he wanted.  He just couldn't accept that I'd been a Vengeance Demon.  He'd probably burst a blood vessel if I went back to it."

"Funny, I wouldn't have guessed you ladies would have so much in common.  Both trying to please your lovers," Ethan said with a sigh, "but your best is never good enough." 

"He doesn't have a point there, does he?" Willow asked.

Anya tipped her head slightly to side.  "He does.  Well, other than Xander thinks you walk on water.  Which is completely unfair."

"No.  That's not… I mean… he… I… well it's different.  We're, we're childhood chummies."

"Exactly!  You're his best friend.  I wanted to be his best friend.  He was my best friend.  Is. Was.  Was!" wailed Anya.

"Ladies! You are missing the point," interjected Ethan, pausing to note the light sinking into the cloudy horizon.  His voice took on a silkiness.  "Here's a little advice."  Willow and Anya looked at him dubiously.  He smiled and held his hands up.  "Do with it what you want."  They nodded and he continued.  "Just be yourselves.  Follow your desires and do what feels good.  Let your relationships spring from that.  Trust me, it's so much easier.  Besides, if they can't love all of you, do they really love you at all?  You," he said, pointing at Anya.  "If you want to return to vengeance work, do it."

"Well, D'Hoffryn was very supportive of my choices both before and after my career ended."

"And you," he said, pointing at Willow.  "If you want to do magic, do it.  It's nearly criminal to keep such a gift hidden under a bushel."  He smiled conspiratorially at her.  "Besides, it's heady, is it not?"  She nodded and her fingers twitched involuntarily.  She clasped them together, trying to keep control.  "Now there is this nice, little locator spell I know.  And if you did it, I bet we could find the portal, your little friends and," he sighed. "Ripper too."

"So if it's a nice spell that means it's white magic, right?"

"Right and so small that if you didn't like the feel of it, you wouldn't need to proceed any further."

"And a tinsy tiny spell that would help out Giles, that would be not so bad, right?"

"No!" said Anya.

"What was that?" asked Ethan, snapping his head around.

"No.  He's doing this purposely, Willow.  He's preying on our weaknesses.  Remember what Skip told us?"

Ethan protested, "I don't know what you're talking about.  I have nothing but our best interests at heart."

"Your best interests, maybe," said Willow.  She wagged her finger at him.  "You really are a bad, bad man."

"And we're not listening to you anymore," said Anya.  She linked arms with Willow.

"Yeah," agreed Willow as she gave Anya's arm a squeeze. "What made you realize that he was up to something?"

"I remembered what Olivia told me the other day about pain and life and growth and vengeance," she replied as they stepped off the path into the grass

Ethan looked at the women and frowned.  "Oh, bother."

*****

Giles peered at the menacing shapes approaching. "Actually," he muttered, thinking of what he had just been through, "this is better. Not good, not good at all, but much, much better." He glanced around the room, looking for weapons, and moved toward the torches burning on the wall.

The light didn't help.  There were four demons in the room and more were forming on the slimy walls.  The demons were humanoid, with oozy patches of hair in rather grotesque spots.

Giles reached for a torch and pulled it from its sconce.  A demon came up on his left side -- he swung at the fiend, but it blocked with its hand and Giles' fist sunk into the demon's palm with a wet splat.  It punched Giles in the shoulder, knocking loose the torch and it skittered over the rough stone floor.

The other three demons were spread out in front of Buffy.  One grabbed her left arm, another her right.  They pulled and she winced from the pain. They pulled again and the third monster extended its long black claws, pushed its arm forward, slowly reaching toward her heart.

*****

Skip was fascinated but a little annoyed with Spike.  He saw so much of himself in the leather-clad demon.  He couldn't help laughing to himself about how he used to "dress cool" and the smoking.  Well, if he were honest, the chain-smoking.  Falling for his wife put an end to all that.  Skip took another deep breath.  This one smelled like his wife.

Tara was too polite to mention that Skip was sniffing her.  It made her a little uneasy but for some reason the uneasy was fleeting.  She drew comfort from Skip, she wasn't sure why.  He was a demon, he hinted that he had a checkered past but still she felt... safe.  There was a voice in her head that said that he would hold this dimension up and shake it before any harm came to them.  Another voice from deeper inside told her that she would have to command him to do that before he would.  "Command."  There was that fleeting unease again; maybe it wasn't the deep breathing from the tall well-muscled demon. She tried not to think how close to a Princess and Knight the casting of herself as Glenda the Good Witch and Skip's role as the Tin Woodsman had come.

Dawn clasped Tara's hand a bit more tightly.  The girl always seemed to know when she was not at the forefront of someone's thoughts.  "Where do we go from here?"

Tara turned to look at the others.  She was surprised and frightened to find them looking at her.  Xander was the logical choice to lead them.  Wasn't he the only original member of the Scooby Gang present?  Shouldn't he be at the helm?  Why were they staring at her?

Spike spoke up.  Letting his cigarette hand flick toward Xander, he said, "This one will claim it was because he is injured.  And he is injured, but it has more to do with his busted wedding than his busted nose."  The hand moved toward Dawn, "The Bit is the Bit.  The brass is there but she isn't really ready to take on the mantle.  Platelet still likes her knee socks better than her sister's thigh highs."   The hand complete with the glowing butt touched his own chest, "I am evil."  He said this with just a touch too much relish.  The hand moved in the direction of their new friend Skip, "That one obviously worships you and is waiting for orders.  I doubt that he is here for the Librarian.  So, what's it gonna be?"

Tara knew that more often than he cared to, Spike spoke the truth.  She didn't argue.  Sighing to release the breath she had been holding, she turned to Skip.  "Any thoughts about a direction?"  Tara quaked just a little when Skip lowered his eyes and shook his head no.  She touched his shoulder and directed the question to the rest of the group, "Does anyone have any impression?  It could be anything did you see or hear anything that was out of place?  That maybe gave you the slightest bit of comfort?"  They were all shaking their heads no but Tara noticed a fleeting smile in Xander's eyes. "What is it Xander?"

His questioning look was never given a voice.  Tara stepped near to him and as she did he understood what she was asking.  When she touched him, he answered, "I just saw a bright yellow flash of sunlight when you and Skip stepped through the portal.  It was strange it seemed to come from above the entry.  It made me smile because it was the exact color of Anya's hair."  Tara smiled broadly, the warmth of her smile pulling an answering smile from Xander.  He felt the pain in his nose lessen dramatically.  Tara turned her smiling eyes toward the area above the view of the illusion she and Skip had just left.

Spike moved to stand beside her. "Right then, shall I lift you up?"

Tara said, "No… better that Skip lifts you up.  We need a demon to cross into the next dimension.  Skip will lift you up.  Then he will lift each of us up to you, then we as a group will lift Skip.  Okay?"  She said this only turning to look at them on the last word.

Sighing again, Tara placed a hand on Spike's shoulder and said, "Please be careful.  There may be dangers there."  Spike shrugged and held back the flip response.  Skip was in position and lifted Spike almost gently.  Spike reached out and was not surprised to find that he could move into a totally different reality.

*****

The new setting was dark.  Darker even than the place they were leaving.  Spike wondered at that.  Tara and Skip had been dropped into a lighted place.  He, the Bit and the boy had been dropped into a total fantasy that was laced with danger but still wasn't menacing like this.  The answers had been simple to arrive at and had been a part of them.  It was natural for Xander to doubt himself and with help from his friends realize his potential.  It was natural for Dawn to see the power that lay around her and unlock it.  It was natural for him to protect Dawn and manage to entertain himself doing it.  But this, this was a place truly of hell.  He wasn't sure he wanted Dawn here.  He was sure it wasn't his decision.  "Damn." 

He turned back the way he had come and lay down on the ground.  He moved foreword in a serpentine fashion until his upper body was in the previous reality.  He looked down at Tara.  "It is not a pretty place. We have to move quickly.  Send Xander up first.  He will be the look out while we get the lot of you up here."