Part 19
Buffy glanced around her with a feeling of dread. She knew this place. The wind whipped through her hair, blowing the long strands across her face. The sky was dark all around her. She looked down and saw she was standing on the crudely built metal platform. She was alone. She turned to look around her, and saw the demon-man behind her, holding a knife that was covered with blood.
"Where is she?" Buffy asked.
"She will be here soon, and this time I will get it right." He said pleasantly, with a mild smile.
"Is that her blood?"
He held the knife up between them and the smile left his face. His eyes turned black and blinked strangely. "This blood is tainted. That will change too." He smiled evilly. "This time we will all receive our just reward."
Buffy sat up with a gasp. She was in her room, alone.
*****
Giles woke to the blare of the alarm clock. He reached his arm over to the bedside table to smack the button, but hit only bare wood. Where was that dratted radio? He opened his blurred eyes and quickly realized he was not in his apartment. A slender arm reached across his bare chest and the annoying buzzing noise stopped. Soft hair tickled his chest and chin as Anya laid her head down on his shoulder and stroked his arm with her hand.
"You stayed." She smiled into his chest. "You've always gone home before."
"Um. Yes, I was rather. worn out last night."
"Hmm. Me too." She lifted her head to kiss him softly. "This is nice."
Giles couldn't argue with that statement, so he told his internal schoolmaster to sod off. Being late for work once in a blue moon was not going to cause the world to end, even if that world was on the Hellmouth. He contented himself with returning her kiss. After a while she lifted her head and looked at him warmly.
"What is it?"
"You're very handsome in the morning. You don't look rumply at all." She frowned slightly. "As a matter of fact, you never look rumply. Why is that?"
She never failed to amuse him. Conversations with her tended to go in unexpected and uncharted directions. "Proper application of starch?" He speculated.
She made a face. "Ew, starch."
"What's wrong with starch?"
"It just made me think of a wish I once granted a woman from Michigan. She had four children and her husband insisted that she starch all of his shirts and iron them every morning. Finally one day he told her he was leaving her for his secretary, whom he was flying to Hawaii for a vacation. She summoned me and wished that fifty cans of the stuff be shoved up his."
"Enough!" Giles held his hand up. "I can't bear to think about it."
"It was pretty gruesome. In some ways it was even worse than the exploding head."
"Anya," he shook his head, "I know that you have learned to have more compassion for people. How can you continue to be a vengeance demon?"
"I can't stop."
"Surely you can call D'Hoffryn and get him to release you."
Anya sat up, pulling the sheet up to cover herself. "I can't."
"Are you afraid of what he will do."
She shook her head. "No! I just..."
"I'm afraid I don't understand." Now he sat up, anger showing in the set of his jaw. "Perhaps the problem is that you don't want to."
"Giles, please... I can't tell you anything and I can't do anything to get out from under this."
He turned to sit on the edge of the bed and found his trousers. "Yet you somehow managed before." He pulled the pants on angrily. "I would think that you would trust me by now to be able to help you out in supernatural matters."
She just sat and looked at him helplessly. "Giles, please don't go. Don't leave me when you're angry like this."
He sighed and sat on the bed beside her. "I am angry, but I'm not leaving you. I need to go home for some fresh clothes, and I will see you later at the store." He finished buttoning his shirt, then put him arm around her and kissed her forehead. "Perhaps we can discuss this then."
After he left, Anya reached down to sadly finger the pendant hanging around her neck.
*****
Willow and Buffy walked into The Magic Box together to find Anya alone, cleaning furiously. "Hi, Anya." Buffy called. "The shop's hasn't even been open a week. I didn't think you were due for a spring cleaning yet."
Anya continued dusting her sparkling shelves. "I find this activity to be therapeutic when I'm experiencing anger or frustration."
"Did you get into a fight with Xander?" Willow asked.
"No Willow. We're still getting along just fine. Sorry to disappoint you."
"I didn't mean..."
"I'm really not even upset with a man in this instance, even though one brought this on." She laid down her dust rag and picked up a broom to attack her baseboards. "How is it that they can make you think and want things that you didn't even know you thought you needed?"
Buffy and Willow exchanged confused glances. Buffy cleared her throat. "Anya, if you didn't mind, we thought we might see if we could do some studying to see what these new monsters have in common. Now that Willow's back we may be able to come up with something..."
"More concrete." Giles voice reached them from the doorway. He moved down to join the girls. "I was having similar thoughts myself."
"Well, good luck with that." Anya called over. "My reference library is severely limited, ever since Willow sucked out all the words. I'm still waiting for replacements."
Willow was amazed. "Anya, are you saying that the words never went back into the books?"
Giles cleared his throat. "Apparently they are still a part of you."
"Wow, Will." Buffy gave her an admiring look. "You're a walking magic reference library."
"Exactly." Giles pointed out. "So why don't we sit down and see what we can find out."
"O... Okay." Willow looked apprehensive, but sat down with Buffy and Giles. Anya continued to clean.
"Anya, I'm sure you could contribute to this as well." Giles invited her to join them.
"I'm agitated Giles, and I doubt that sitting down next to you right now is going to help with that."
"Very well. Just continue with whatever it is that you're doing."
"Fine, I will."
"Fine."
Again, Willow and Buffy exchanged a look. "OK." Willow began, "What have we got?"
Buffy and Giles outlined what they knew about Doc and his powers, plus the Ghora Demon, the dragon, the Leviathan, and the gangs of Fyarl demons and vampires. Finally Buffy noted the sudden drop in demonic activity.
"This worries me." Giles noted.
"Yes." Willow agreed. "It's like the calm before the storm."
"And there's one other thing." Buffy added. "I had a dream last night." She immediately had their attention, and proceeded to describe the dream in as much detail as she could.
"This time..." Giles mused. "He repeated that phrase 'This time'."
"I think he's going to try to re-open the hell dimension." Buffy stated. Everybody nodded. "And he's going to use Dawn again. He tried to take her with the Fyarl demons, then he sent the vampires to try and kill William and me. He was probably trying to get us out of the way so that he could try to take her again."
Giles frowned. "There is a problem with the theory." He lifted his head and looked around the table. "The timing of the event was crucial. Remember, we were trying to delay Glory, knowing that if we were successful she would miss her chance."
Willow nodded. "That's right. We did stop Glory, but we didn't know about Doc."
"If he's a time traveler, couldn't he just go back to change things?" Buffy speculated.
"No Buffy." Willow's voice was certain. "He can go back and change some of the things he did himself, but he can't change what anybody else did. You were still there to jump in Dawn's place, and Glory was still stopped. He can't be in two places at one time."
"Why not?"
"It's against the physical laws. If you have the exact same entity present in two forms at the same time..."
"They cease to exist." Giles finished.
"Then how can he travel through time without that happening to him?" She turned to Anya. "Do you know?"
"Yes." Anya replied. "A time wizard just pops back into the same space that he was in before. It's a special power they have. If he goes back in time there isn't suddenly two of him, just the one. But he keeps all the memories."
"I see." Buffy said. "Then he can't pop back and show up at a different place from where he was. He would be on the platform and I would still throw him off."
"Exactly." Anya nodded. "And we still have the question as to how he was able to teleport those other things through time." Anya walked over to the table and sat beside Giles.
"You're sure he couldn't manage it?" Giles questioned. "You also said that Willow wouldn't be able to teleport, but she eventually did."
"Only after I had absorbed enough magical energy." Willow told them. "Could he have boosted his powers in the same way?
Anya shrugged. "Maybe, but where would he have gotten that much power? Those are very large, nasty monsters."
"Maybe it was from me." Willow said quietly. "When I went all uber-witch last spring I was throwing magic around like confetti. I had to recharge a few times. He could have drained some off of me."
"Yes, Willow." Giles leaned forward. "It was after that happened that the creatures started appearing. Then perhaps at some point he went back and planted the Ghora using a power boost from Glory, hoping to kill Spike before the big event."
"Why would he want to kill Spike?" Buffy asked. "Spike failed to stop him, remember? Why would he try to go to so much trouble to get him out of the way?"
"I don't know, but there must be something we're missing."
"And why does he want Dawn?" Buffy wanted to know.
"What do you mean?" Willow asked. "She's the Key."
"But she isn't now." Giles added. "And if he travels back to that night when Buffy died, Dawn is already there."
"So now we're back at square one." Buffy mumbled. "What is he doing?"
"What is his reward?" Anya asked. They turned to look at her. "He said 'we will receive our just rewards'. If we find out what his reward is, then maybe we can figure out what he wants to do to get it."
Buffy considered this for a moment. "So maybe he had his own selfish purposes for opening the dimensions that went beyond what Glory wanted."
"He can't travel across dimensions." Anya informed them. Again everybody turned to stare at her. "I can, but he can't." She announced proudly. "If he wanted to reach a certain dimension for some reason, he would need to use a rift to enter it."
"Then it stands to reason," Giles added, "that once in, he would need a method to get back out."
Buffy straightened, excited. "That's it. He's not just trying to open the hell dimensions. Maybe Glory brought him here. We stopped her and now he's stuck, so he's trying to get home!"
"That takes care of the what and the why." Anya stated. "Now we just have to figure out the how."
Buffy glanced around her with a feeling of dread. She knew this place. The wind whipped through her hair, blowing the long strands across her face. The sky was dark all around her. She looked down and saw she was standing on the crudely built metal platform. She was alone. She turned to look around her, and saw the demon-man behind her, holding a knife that was covered with blood.
"Where is she?" Buffy asked.
"She will be here soon, and this time I will get it right." He said pleasantly, with a mild smile.
"Is that her blood?"
He held the knife up between them and the smile left his face. His eyes turned black and blinked strangely. "This blood is tainted. That will change too." He smiled evilly. "This time we will all receive our just reward."
Buffy sat up with a gasp. She was in her room, alone.
*****
Giles woke to the blare of the alarm clock. He reached his arm over to the bedside table to smack the button, but hit only bare wood. Where was that dratted radio? He opened his blurred eyes and quickly realized he was not in his apartment. A slender arm reached across his bare chest and the annoying buzzing noise stopped. Soft hair tickled his chest and chin as Anya laid her head down on his shoulder and stroked his arm with her hand.
"You stayed." She smiled into his chest. "You've always gone home before."
"Um. Yes, I was rather. worn out last night."
"Hmm. Me too." She lifted her head to kiss him softly. "This is nice."
Giles couldn't argue with that statement, so he told his internal schoolmaster to sod off. Being late for work once in a blue moon was not going to cause the world to end, even if that world was on the Hellmouth. He contented himself with returning her kiss. After a while she lifted her head and looked at him warmly.
"What is it?"
"You're very handsome in the morning. You don't look rumply at all." She frowned slightly. "As a matter of fact, you never look rumply. Why is that?"
She never failed to amuse him. Conversations with her tended to go in unexpected and uncharted directions. "Proper application of starch?" He speculated.
She made a face. "Ew, starch."
"What's wrong with starch?"
"It just made me think of a wish I once granted a woman from Michigan. She had four children and her husband insisted that she starch all of his shirts and iron them every morning. Finally one day he told her he was leaving her for his secretary, whom he was flying to Hawaii for a vacation. She summoned me and wished that fifty cans of the stuff be shoved up his."
"Enough!" Giles held his hand up. "I can't bear to think about it."
"It was pretty gruesome. In some ways it was even worse than the exploding head."
"Anya," he shook his head, "I know that you have learned to have more compassion for people. How can you continue to be a vengeance demon?"
"I can't stop."
"Surely you can call D'Hoffryn and get him to release you."
Anya sat up, pulling the sheet up to cover herself. "I can't."
"Are you afraid of what he will do."
She shook her head. "No! I just..."
"I'm afraid I don't understand." Now he sat up, anger showing in the set of his jaw. "Perhaps the problem is that you don't want to."
"Giles, please... I can't tell you anything and I can't do anything to get out from under this."
He turned to sit on the edge of the bed and found his trousers. "Yet you somehow managed before." He pulled the pants on angrily. "I would think that you would trust me by now to be able to help you out in supernatural matters."
She just sat and looked at him helplessly. "Giles, please don't go. Don't leave me when you're angry like this."
He sighed and sat on the bed beside her. "I am angry, but I'm not leaving you. I need to go home for some fresh clothes, and I will see you later at the store." He finished buttoning his shirt, then put him arm around her and kissed her forehead. "Perhaps we can discuss this then."
After he left, Anya reached down to sadly finger the pendant hanging around her neck.
*****
Willow and Buffy walked into The Magic Box together to find Anya alone, cleaning furiously. "Hi, Anya." Buffy called. "The shop's hasn't even been open a week. I didn't think you were due for a spring cleaning yet."
Anya continued dusting her sparkling shelves. "I find this activity to be therapeutic when I'm experiencing anger or frustration."
"Did you get into a fight with Xander?" Willow asked.
"No Willow. We're still getting along just fine. Sorry to disappoint you."
"I didn't mean..."
"I'm really not even upset with a man in this instance, even though one brought this on." She laid down her dust rag and picked up a broom to attack her baseboards. "How is it that they can make you think and want things that you didn't even know you thought you needed?"
Buffy and Willow exchanged confused glances. Buffy cleared her throat. "Anya, if you didn't mind, we thought we might see if we could do some studying to see what these new monsters have in common. Now that Willow's back we may be able to come up with something..."
"More concrete." Giles voice reached them from the doorway. He moved down to join the girls. "I was having similar thoughts myself."
"Well, good luck with that." Anya called over. "My reference library is severely limited, ever since Willow sucked out all the words. I'm still waiting for replacements."
Willow was amazed. "Anya, are you saying that the words never went back into the books?"
Giles cleared his throat. "Apparently they are still a part of you."
"Wow, Will." Buffy gave her an admiring look. "You're a walking magic reference library."
"Exactly." Giles pointed out. "So why don't we sit down and see what we can find out."
"O... Okay." Willow looked apprehensive, but sat down with Buffy and Giles. Anya continued to clean.
"Anya, I'm sure you could contribute to this as well." Giles invited her to join them.
"I'm agitated Giles, and I doubt that sitting down next to you right now is going to help with that."
"Very well. Just continue with whatever it is that you're doing."
"Fine, I will."
"Fine."
Again, Willow and Buffy exchanged a look. "OK." Willow began, "What have we got?"
Buffy and Giles outlined what they knew about Doc and his powers, plus the Ghora Demon, the dragon, the Leviathan, and the gangs of Fyarl demons and vampires. Finally Buffy noted the sudden drop in demonic activity.
"This worries me." Giles noted.
"Yes." Willow agreed. "It's like the calm before the storm."
"And there's one other thing." Buffy added. "I had a dream last night." She immediately had their attention, and proceeded to describe the dream in as much detail as she could.
"This time..." Giles mused. "He repeated that phrase 'This time'."
"I think he's going to try to re-open the hell dimension." Buffy stated. Everybody nodded. "And he's going to use Dawn again. He tried to take her with the Fyarl demons, then he sent the vampires to try and kill William and me. He was probably trying to get us out of the way so that he could try to take her again."
Giles frowned. "There is a problem with the theory." He lifted his head and looked around the table. "The timing of the event was crucial. Remember, we were trying to delay Glory, knowing that if we were successful she would miss her chance."
Willow nodded. "That's right. We did stop Glory, but we didn't know about Doc."
"If he's a time traveler, couldn't he just go back to change things?" Buffy speculated.
"No Buffy." Willow's voice was certain. "He can go back and change some of the things he did himself, but he can't change what anybody else did. You were still there to jump in Dawn's place, and Glory was still stopped. He can't be in two places at one time."
"Why not?"
"It's against the physical laws. If you have the exact same entity present in two forms at the same time..."
"They cease to exist." Giles finished.
"Then how can he travel through time without that happening to him?" She turned to Anya. "Do you know?"
"Yes." Anya replied. "A time wizard just pops back into the same space that he was in before. It's a special power they have. If he goes back in time there isn't suddenly two of him, just the one. But he keeps all the memories."
"I see." Buffy said. "Then he can't pop back and show up at a different place from where he was. He would be on the platform and I would still throw him off."
"Exactly." Anya nodded. "And we still have the question as to how he was able to teleport those other things through time." Anya walked over to the table and sat beside Giles.
"You're sure he couldn't manage it?" Giles questioned. "You also said that Willow wouldn't be able to teleport, but she eventually did."
"Only after I had absorbed enough magical energy." Willow told them. "Could he have boosted his powers in the same way?
Anya shrugged. "Maybe, but where would he have gotten that much power? Those are very large, nasty monsters."
"Maybe it was from me." Willow said quietly. "When I went all uber-witch last spring I was throwing magic around like confetti. I had to recharge a few times. He could have drained some off of me."
"Yes, Willow." Giles leaned forward. "It was after that happened that the creatures started appearing. Then perhaps at some point he went back and planted the Ghora using a power boost from Glory, hoping to kill Spike before the big event."
"Why would he want to kill Spike?" Buffy asked. "Spike failed to stop him, remember? Why would he try to go to so much trouble to get him out of the way?"
"I don't know, but there must be something we're missing."
"And why does he want Dawn?" Buffy wanted to know.
"What do you mean?" Willow asked. "She's the Key."
"But she isn't now." Giles added. "And if he travels back to that night when Buffy died, Dawn is already there."
"So now we're back at square one." Buffy mumbled. "What is he doing?"
"What is his reward?" Anya asked. They turned to look at her. "He said 'we will receive our just rewards'. If we find out what his reward is, then maybe we can figure out what he wants to do to get it."
Buffy considered this for a moment. "So maybe he had his own selfish purposes for opening the dimensions that went beyond what Glory wanted."
"He can't travel across dimensions." Anya informed them. Again everybody turned to stare at her. "I can, but he can't." She announced proudly. "If he wanted to reach a certain dimension for some reason, he would need to use a rift to enter it."
"Then it stands to reason," Giles added, "that once in, he would need a method to get back out."
Buffy straightened, excited. "That's it. He's not just trying to open the hell dimensions. Maybe Glory brought him here. We stopped her and now he's stuck, so he's trying to get home!"
"That takes care of the what and the why." Anya stated. "Now we just have to figure out the how."