***

The remaining vampires in the room tied to rally themselves to form a defense against the whirlwind of chaos and mayhem released in their midst. The two women where more then holding their own against the throng surrounding them.

"You seem to be short of companions." Antonio taunted from his place by the altar.

"We left the rest of the kids at home we figured this would be quick and easy." Buffy tossed over her shoulder as she snap kicked a vamp then staked him as he reeled from the blow.

He saw that Sonja was making short work of the fools who were trying to attack her. Anyone of them he might consider taking on separately, but together the both of them were like a force of nature. Heading to the altar he grabbed the blade and caressed Anya's hair. "My dear I apologize I can't give you the attention you deserve but, your friends arrival makes completing my work all the more important."

He was preparing to use the knife when he felt Sonja grab him from behind. "No Magic today spell-boy." She sneered. She pulled her arm back to stab at him with her switchblade.

"Ms. Blue I have more mundane ways of dealing with the likes of you." He snapped his fingers. Sonja was relieved when she felt no drawing of magic against her. What she did feel was a freight train ramming into her. She flew across the room to land next to a far wall. Shaking her head to clear it, she looked up to see an ogre crossing the floor toward her.

"I had prepared a Pyrotic to deal with your new friends, But Kruger here; I got a hold of him just to deal with you."

Sonja bounded off the floor and began circling to get an opening against her new opponent. The ogre stood seven or eight feet tall and broad with rippling muscles. Its large simian features matched by the thick arms that ended in huge pan like hands.

"Buffy we have to get to your friends or they're fried - Literally." Sonja charged the ogre. Who reached for her, she slid around him and stabbed upward. She felt the blade of her knife skid across the surface of his think hide. The ogre grunted. He brutally bashed her across the shoulders and she fell to her knees. From her new perspective she looked into the face of her would be killer. Suddenly The Other inside her hissed angrily. She swept her arm backwards and forwards faster then the eye could fallow. She stabbed downwards. The knife in her grasp pierced through the thick hide and continued down into the meat of the ogre's foot. The hulking creature screamed.

"That's what a girl likes to hear." Sonja sneered as she backpedaled and tried to come up with a better attack plan.

Buffy made for the altar. The plan had changed she and Sonja would no longer have back up. She confronted Antonio.

"You've pulled your last rabbit, Anton." Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw Anya struggling against her bonds. Antonio smiled and held up the Ashanti dagger. "Normally I would be more concerned. If you weren't already too late."

He suddenly stabbed out at Anya's leg plunging the blade in up to the hilt and the pulling it back. "Death's hand has touched you my dear, shall we see if your body remembers her caress." Buffy moved to grab for the warlock when her lungs began to close. She felt like she was drowning. It was just as it had been five years ago when The Master had taken her life.

The mage stepped forward and brandished the brightly glowing blade in her face. "The power to create and control the perfect reality or to merge with it. Powerful magic's my dear and thy are now mine to command."

Buffy slipped to her knees as the water filled her lungs. "With the amount of times you have faced death I am sure there are several moments you have escaped fate. Let us see what happens when you aren't so fortunate."

***

Willow conjured a windstorm that held the barkeep at bay. It pushed him backward away from Xander and Spike. The two sprang form the ground, and ran back to join the rest of the group.

"Plan, we need a plan" Xander huffed as he looked down the Hall. "Buffy and Sonja are counting on us. Anya could be dead already."

"What is that thing?" Tara asked

"I've heard of pyrotics, but never seen a real one." Giles answered.

"A what" Xander asked

"Pyrotics…" Spike muttered "Elemental and possessing spirits. You conjure one and stuff it inside the body of someone your not fond of, than you have a walking fire bomb, until the demon burns out the host… literally."

"Can we cast it out?" Willow asked concentrating on strengthening the hurricane she was unleashing.

"Sure, problem being once it's free it will hop to the closest warm body." Spike screamed as the thing fought to get at them through the gale force winds.

"I guess that keeps your ass safe" Xander muttered

"Let it go Xander, he did just save your life after all."

"Yeah don't let it get around it might spoil my reputation of not giving a damn about the lot of you"

"Gg-guys could me fff-focus on the crisis please." Tara was stammering; always a very bad sign when gauging the relative danger in a situation.

Giles peeked around the corner and the pyrotic; catching sight of him opened his mouth and flames belched forward into the wind that tore viciously at him. He seemed to realize that he would not reach his target this way. His cheeks began filling like a gross parody of a cartoon character. Once his cheeks had swelled to twice their normal size, he spewed a glowing stream of vomits; the mound of burning liquid flew down the hall. The ex-librarian showed the reflexes that had made his many schoolmasters whine about his refusal to apply himself to the football squad. He leapt to one side. All the same, some of the burning fluid caught a part of his shoe.

Giles cried out in pain and hurled the shoe from his foot that was already blistering and turning dark colours.

"It almost looks like a napalm burn " Xander had the cold taste of fear in his voice.

"Trust when I say that it feels like one to." Giles hissed.

Tara rolled up her sleeves and laid her hand on the wound. "Let me try to heal it."

"No time, that menace will keep us pinned down. Sonja and Buffy could be dying at Antonio's hands at this moment and we're trying to avoid being roasted alive."

"Anya" Xander said quietly. He turned his gaze fearfully up the hall toward the door that stood between him and his true love. Was she alive? How long would she stay that way?

Suddenly it jellied within him. Someone was going to have to save the Day and with Giles on the injured list, Willow doing everything she could to keep the thing from killing them all that person was going to have to be him. The last thought he had before he dived into the hall was "Harris you have lost your freaking mind."