Author's Note: Yeah Yeah I'm evil, I'm slow going, blah blitty blah. Blame Joss Whedon, cos I'm all sorts of crushed about the absence of the Buffyverse for the first time in 8 years! So I'm in pain. And yeah, I'm heartbroken, and yeah it's tough to write in the 'verse now!!! But here is the next chapter, and I swear I will work on some more soon. I just need proper inspiration... like reviews... and cookies. ;) BTW any of you Firefly freaks out there will catch one of Jayne's most memorable lines in here, it's a personal favorite of mine and so I had to put it in here. I appologize for any errors spelling or otherwise, I was working so hard to get this done that I didn't double check it.

Sunnydale

"Hell-o?" The shock flashed across Buffy's face. "What in the hell are you doing here?" She looked down on the two figures at her door.

"Hola, greetings from sunny Me-hi-co." Andrew shrugged and waved his arm in an arc.

"Hi, Buffy." Jonathon said.

"Is this a joke?" Buffy huffed.

"No, but this is. So a chicken walks into a bar..." Andrew was nervous, he always talked too much when he was nervous. Jonathon poked him to get him to shut up. "Ow! Ribs!"

"Buffy we need to talk to you. Something has happened, or is about to." Jonathon stepped up to the plate. Having dealt with Buffy serveral times before he was an evil mastermind he knew he could plead to her sensible side.

"So, talk."

"Can we come in? I have a double meat medley that's getting cold." Andrew held up his Double Meat Palace bag.

"I'm not a big fan of inviting my nemeses in for supper."

"Bollocks!" Spike shouted from the living room as he walked to the front door. "They can't do much with the lot of us here, and they're pretty much harmless. I heard Red skinned the leader."

"He was NOT our leader! We were democratic! We voted and everything!" Andrew said.

"Fine come in." Buffy stepped aside and let the two boys in. She guided them to the dining room where Angel and Spike each stood at an exit. If they were going to escape they'd have to go through them first. "Talk. And I don't want to hear 'What I did on my summer vacation.'"

Jonathon started. "We went to Mexico."

"Which is apparent considering the ponchos." Buffy said.

"In Mexico we sort of settled in. I was doing some minor magicks for the locals."

"And I worked at a taco stand. Jonathon said we served dog ala burrito, but I think he was just saying that." Spike glared at Andrew, and Andrew visibly squirmed in his seat.

"Anyways, cos I have a connection to the dark side I could feel a tug. There has been a recent upswing in the number of 'dearly-departed' sightings, and a lot of animal possession requests."

"Sounds like an honest living." Buffy sarcastically remarked.

"Listen Buffy, we didn't come back here because we wanted to. We had to. We've been having dreams. Dreams about fights, big fights." Jonathon started.

"And something that will eat us starting with our bottoms, or eat us from the ground or something like that." Andrew continued through bites of his sandwich.

"From beneath you, it devours." Spike said.

"Yeah. Sounds familiar doesn't it?" Buffy said back to him.

"There are also girls." Jonathon said quietly, looking down at his hands.

"Well, ain't that a surprise, the two of you poofters dreamin' about girls!" Spike laughed.

"Dead girls. Lots of them. Not just dead, but they are carved with symbols. Whatever is killing them is consistent between our dreams. I can't figure out what it means, I don't know who these girls are. They just appear. Like when I'm running away I keep passing bodies."

"There was one in the mall parking lot in my dream." Andrew added. A silence follwoed this, everyone thinking about what they had said.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Angel asked.

"If you are thinking potentials, then yeah." Buffy said, Angel nodded. "But why would these two be seeing this?"

"Um, hell-o we have evil on speed dial. Maybe they want us to join their army and help them take over the world to bring about the second demon age." Andrew said. This time everyone stared at him. "What? It's true!"

"Hate to say it love, but I think the wee-man may have a point."

"Maybe, but I mean, these two are harmless. Why would the First Evil contact them?"

"Because it knows they would come back to you." Angel said. "It's taunting you in a sense, like it taunted me."

"Okay, but why? I mean it's not like it's the playground bully."

"Because this is part of it's game. It plays with your mind, makes you think things."

"So the big bad wants to play mind games. Lovely, that's a new one." Buffy said.

"Um, we want to help." Jonathon said.

"You what?"

"We want to help you. Get on the path towards redemption, you know like Spike."

"I did it first!" Angel said with indignation.

"Why should we believe you?"

"Because these dreams, visions, whatever, they're scary, really scary. We have a lot to make up for. Things Warren did, things we let him do, things we helped him do. We never really meant to hurt anyone. And once we did, we couldn't take it back. Maybe we can help. I'm an okay warlock, and Andrew can summon demons to do our bidding." Buffy glared at him, "Or, he's really good at reading demon languages and stuff. He also makes excellent bait?"

"Hey! No fair munchkin man!" Andrew said.

"Boys, calm down. We'll have to see." Buffy nodded at Angel and Spike to come talk with her. They headed for the kitchen.

"Aren't we offering them a prime opportunity to escape?" Spike asked.

"Those two are terrified. It's rolling off of them, I can smell it." Angel said.

"Ew, but yeah, he's right. They aren't going anywhere. I mean last time they were in town their fearless leader got flayed alive. Not like we are exactly who they want to be with. I think we need to talk to Giles about this."

"Right, that means I get to be his undead alarm clock doesn't it?" Spike asked.

"He's not a big fan of mine." Angel offered.

"I can see where murdering his girlfriend and then torturing him may have severed the buddy bond." Spike directed at Angel, and headed out to get Giles.

"So it's playing with my mind by sending me two nerds who want to make up for their evil deeds. Ooo The First Evil just has me shaking in my afforable yet fashionable boots." Buffy directed at Angel.

"It'll increase it's game soon enough. This is the playing portion of the taunting wait until it really gets going."

"So it gets worse than seriously lame camp fire stories?"

"You know it does."

"Yeah." Buffy looked down at the linoleum in the kitchen. She knew things were going to get bad, the humor only made it sufferable.

Spike and a half-awake Giles came into the kitchen.

"Waking him, is worse than waking the bloody dead. Sleeps like a brick is an understatement not to be taken lightly!"

Giles wandered to the kitchen sink with the tea pot, "So I hear two missing persons have shown up at our door."

"Yeah, and their in the dining room. I think they know stuff, the first evil has been contacting them or something. They want to help."

"We'll have to see what exactly they know, just as soon as my brain stops fighting with my skull." Giles sat at the counter.

"Until then?"

"We could tie them up and hold them hostage." Angel suggested.

"Or we could turn on the Sci-Fi network and plop them in front of the tellie, I doubt they'll leave."

"When Giles feels better we'll talk to them again. I better find more sleeping supplies. Looks like Chateau Summers will have no vacancy again. Maybe we could get Xander to build some extra bedrooms in the backyard."

"He is handy with a hammer." Giles said.

Somewhere in South East Asia

Anya had been doing her best to fulfill her duties as vengeance demon, and to see if she could get any information on what was stirring beneath Sunnydale. So far she was having no luck with the latter. If D'Hoffryn found out what she was doing, she could probably be vanquished. While D'Hoffryn rarely took sides in the eternal battle between good and evil, he didn't like his demons carring out personal business during working hours. She had only one avenue left, and it really wasn't a pretty southern boulevard lined with magnolia trees, it was more of a skid-row dead end in an internal vortex of pain and suffering.

Beljoxa's Eye wasn't to be taken lightly. It was an oracle of the demon world that was, an oracle that still knew what was going on, and might be able to offer clarity. Anya couldn't go alone, she needed someone she could trust would be able to get the hell out of Beljoxa's dimension. Knowing that Anya wasn't huge on the trust anyways, she decided to go with the most powerful person she knew. Of course she would have to pray that the darkside wouldn't consume her, but honestly Anya didn't mind her when she was evil, except for the destruction of her capitalistic venture, and the strange veins. She needed Willow.

New York

Teleporting would have been the simplest solution to getting to Sunnydale in a very rapid way. Willow had instead opted for the airplane, she couldn't be held responsible if a ticket for the last flight out of Heathrow to New York suddenly materialized in the palm of her hand. At least she justified that while she probably shouldn't be using magic to get herself on an airplane, she was doing it for the greater good. That intro to philosophy class and the Utilitarianism offered by John Stewart Mill had offered her the logical explanation to cover her actions however questionable they may be.

She was waiting for her flight to Sunnydale flipping through some magazine spouting off about this or that celebrty and what they were up to. Willow had always found these magazines to be proof on how clueless the large population of the world was. Evil was afoot, hundreds of apocalyptical situations evaded, and all the public really cared about was whether or not Johnny Depp would do another Pirates of the Carribean movie and if Britany Spears had slept with Fred Durst. Sometimes she wished that she had never been clued in on the actual status of the world, so things this trivial could concern her.

"If wishes were horses, we'd all be eating steak." A familiar voice came from the chair behind her. "And you should know better than to even think about wishing."

"Anya."

Anya walked around the chairs to stand in front of Willow. "Willow."

"Why are you here?"

"No, why are you here? I figured I'd be in England right now, and instead I'm considering having a Sex in the City moment, buying some Blahniks and getting a tartini."

"I'm going home."

"Sunnydale, home?"

"Yeah."

"Do they know you're on your way home?"

"Not exactly, I mean I didn't call or anything."

"Scared? Think they're gonna hate you forever?"

"Sort of."

"Well, I'd love to tell you that they are going to welcome you with open arms, blah blah blah, but the truth is, they're kinda fickle. So I'm not really sure I can gauge what their reactions will be."

"Thanks for the pep talk Anya. By the way, why are you looking for me?"

"Well, that's a funny story. Funny 'haha' not funny 'eww.' I need your help. I'm going to open a portal to Beljoxa's Eye, and I need someone to come with me, someone who, should we get trapped, can get us back out and home."

"I don't know Anya, I'm really not supposed to be doing too much magic."

"What? This is for the greater good and all that. Giles and Buffy asked me to get some info on the latest big bad rumbling beneath Sunnydale. Beljoxa's Eye is the last resort. It knows about everything that is going on down here. It will know, and it will help. Hey, I'm a demon and I'm trying to help. Plus I can teleport you back to Sunnydale afterward so we can tell them together all of the news we have recieved, and then they will love you because you helped without being asked, unlike me, who has to be told to do good things."

"I don't know Anya, I'm still sort of recovering."

"Willow if you fear your own power you'll never be able to control it. Being scared of yourself is only going to make your power unstable, and then you'll be twice as dangerous. Remember the flaying? You were unstable, and your power took over who you are. You have to own your power."

"Are you becoming a motivational speaker?"

"Spike and I watched some Dr. Phil, it gets me rant-y."

"Okay, I guess I can help you. When do we do this?"

Anya looked around. "I'm thinking now." Anya grabbed Willow's hand and dragged her towards the bathroom.

"Anya!"

"Shh. you're a lesbian, you will pretend to be my lover so we can have wild sex in the handicapped stall like in Unfaithful, only with women in an airport, and without the sexy mostly half naked Olivier Martinez. Then I'll open the portal we jump in and no one is the wiser."

"I have to have sex with you?"

"No! I mean I wouldn't be against it, I did have some fun experimentation in the sixties, and you're not terribly misshapen or anything., but this is more of a cover story than an actual thing we need to do."

"Okay good." Anya smiled at the other ladies in the bathroom, and then dragged Willow into a stall.

"Make some noises, portals can be loud." Anya ripped a few hairs from her head, a physical sacrifice from the flesh of a demon was necessary to open the portal, and Anya didn't feel like ripping off a finger. She then uttered the incantation, "Ek'vola mok't Beljoxa do'kar." With a whirr a small portal opened and grew steadily. "Come on, it's time to get some answers." Anya grabbed Willow's hand and walked into the portal, in an instant the two of them and the portal were gone.