Chapter 10:

Xander didn't know a lot of things about this situation, he had no idea how Dawn had gotten into the crystal thingie, nor did he know what she was doing in there. What kind of demons were going to try to kill him and how many there were of them was a great mystery as well, but it all added up to one thing that he knew beyond a doubt. They were in big trouble.

He tried to calm his fast beating heart as he understood that this was not the time or place to panic. Taking a deep breath he addressed Dawn, hoping against hope that she could hear him. "You take your time, I'll keep them away from you. Although, if you could hurry a little I'd be perfectly okay with it."

Turning away from the disturbing sight of a floating Dawn he took stock of their weapons. Both crossbows were still with them and he had his swords and two knives, that should be enough against an unknown but large number of demons, shouldn't it? "We are so doomed." His voice sounded so defeated that he shook himself, he couldn't give up while his friend's life was at stake.

There had to be a way to make this work, in Sunnydale they often had to with less while facing more dangerous enemies. He wasn't entirely certain he believed that, but it did manage to bring his mind back to where it was needed. The job here wasn't to defeat the enemy, it was to ensure the survival of Dawn and if possible himself as well. He needed to protect the life of a friend and no two-bit army of demons was going to stop him.

Moving to the entrances he tried to determine from which direction most of the demons were coming. And, in perfect accordance with his wonderful stroke of luck these past weeks, that seemed to be from the path where he had spent a lot of time carving the walls. Cursing his luck didn't help, but it sure made him feel better.

Okay, with the weapons he had there wasn't that much he could do but it had to be possible to do more than just sit there and wait for them to come and kill him. His eyes wandered to the only things that offered any chance of him surviving this, but Torala had warned against using it. When she had first mentioned them he hadn't believed it, as that kind of thing belonged in a Rambo movie, not in the real world. But in the end she had managed to convince him to take them along, just in case, but at the same time had warned him of the consequences.

There were twenty of them, twenty crossbow bolts with an explosive head that was capable of blowing apart a two feet thick reinforced concrete wall and he was planning on using them in an enclosed space. Using them might save them from the demons, but on the other hand if things went seriously wrong they might also be trapped in this room without any food or water. He sighed in frustration about his lack of options, and for a moment he thought that maybe the sorceress had been right about taking the guns after all.

. . . .

Xander had loaded both crossbows the way Torala had shown him, he didn't know what would happen if he didn't do it that way but he had a feeling it wouldn't be pretty. Now he was standing in the middle of the room, a crossbow in each of his hands, hanging on the sides of his body but ready to aim them when it became necessary. Both of his knives in their sheets, the sword hanging on his back and dressed in a skintight black suit he had a feeling he looked like some kind of strange cross between Rambo and a ninja wannabe.

The sound of the demons approaching was getting clearer now and from the way they sounded it was obvious there were a lot of them, hundreds at the least. But the odds didn't matter, there was only one thing he needed to do right now and to him that was the most important thing that could be. A friend was in danger and he needed to protect her. All the fears that had ruled him for the past year were inconsequential compared to that fact, so he didn't pay any attention to them when he spotted the first of the demons.

His mind as clear and calm as it had ever been, he focused completely on the demons that were now appearing. For the moment they only came from one direction, so he pointed both crossbows there and let loose a barrage of bolts. Six bolts in three seconds, ten in five and he continued pulling the triggers mentally counting the shots. With twenty bolts in each weapon and shooting a bolt from each weapon every second meant that he couldn't keep this up for more then twenty seconds, but he was hoping that would be enough.

After eighteen seconds the demons seemed to have realized they couldn't get through that storm of bolts and pulled back out of sight and reach of his weapons. Happy that had worked Xander quickly reloaded the stock of normal bolts in both weapons, and was once again reduced to waiting for the demons to show themselves. He cast a hopeful look behind him, but there was no change in Dawn's situation. Closing his eyes for a brief moment he sent up a quick prayer to whatever deity might be listening, before once again focusing on the threat.

It seemed like both groups of demons were somehow able to communicate and when the second group had reached the entrance they attacked simultaneously. Once again he counted the bolts as they departed his weapons, one to the left and one to the right, two to the left. This time however it wasn't enough, besides the fact that he now only had one crossbow in each direction, the lack of a second eye meant that he couldn't watch both entrances at the same time.

He was still in that strangely calm state when the first demon entered the room, and he had no trouble putting a bolt through its throat before using the switches located by his thumbs. Dimly he heard the mechanisms inside the crossbows change to the other load while the demons kept coming closer and closer. Five of them had entered the room when he heard the soft clicks that indicated he could use his weapons again. He let fly one of the explosive bolts into each passageway, before he dropped the crossbows and took hold of his sword.

The effect was more then he had expected but luckily in a good way. As he had prepared himself for the expected shockwaves he didn't fall down, unlike the demons that were inside the room with him. The way the tunnels suddenly became a blazing inferno however was something he hadn't expected, nor had he reckoned on the heat wave that came into the room with it.

The demons that had been closest to the entrances fared the worst of those in the room, one was vaporized like those that had still been in the passageways and two others suffered severe burns. Those further in the room suffered lesser wounds but didn't come out of it unscathed either. Xander himself was furthest from the entrances and had several demons between him and the blast, but even he suffered some light burns on those parts of his body not protected by the suit.

The sudden heat had left him dazed for a moment, but soon he went to the demons in order to finish them. Apparently their shock had been greater then his as the first two didn't even put up a fight when he moved to cut off their heads. Moving to the next one however, he noticed that it was becoming harder to breathe, but even that knowledge didn't stop him from doing what he had to do.

By the time his sword had cut through the demon's head breathing was steadily becoming a major problem, and he started to check himself for any wounds that might have caused it. Realization hit him at the same time he felt his lungs burning, a sensation caused by the lack of air. Horrified he turned to look at the fires blazing inside the passageways that led to this room. Fires that were sucking all the oxygen out of the room.

While the explosions hadn't caused them to be trapped here, they had signed their death warrants after all. Xander's last thought before losing consciousness was a wish that oxygen would have returned by the time Dawn exited the artifact.

. . . .

Burning. His longs felt as if they were on fire and he was starting to see spots in front of his eyes, he realized it was only a question of time before he'd faint and eventually die. Between one moment and the next however the pain in his chest suddenly disappeared, and he was once more capable of breathing. Taking a deep breath of refreshing air he opened his eyes, which he couldn't even remember closing, and looked around.

He was on his knees, like the closing of his eyes he didn't know when that had happened, but it didn't matter anymore since he had discovered where he was. There was another Xander kneeling over a wounded Dawn and that meant this could be only one thing. Another of those annoying dreams he was incapable of fully remembering. Sighing he got up and decided to make the best of this opportunity. He set out to discover as much of the temple as he could, but he had barely traveled a couple of meters when he walked into some sort of invisible wall.

Rubbing his head where he had hit the wall Xander wondered about this, he had never before encountered a wall like this and he couldn't understand why it had shown up here and now. Tentatively he tried to find a way to pass it, but he soon discovered this was futile and he stopped his mime act in favor of thinking about the reason for this wall. Could it have something to do with the way his real body was choking to death due to a lack of oxygen? Or was it something else?

Xander thought about what he knew of these dreams, there was always another version of him around, and they were always about what had happened to him that day. He frowned for a moment, those early dreams had always been about isolated events and he had never strayed away from the other him very far. In fact, he had never really left his other self's side until the paintings in the tunnel of history, and now he wondered whether that had been possible because of Torala or her house. After all, she had been able to speak to him in his dreams, something else he still wanted an explanation about.

Thinking this over he suddenly felt a shove in his back and falling down he was slowly dragged forward. He almost started to panic, until he found out that his little theory had just been validated in the strangest way possible. In front of him was the other Xander, helping Dawn walk to the room where he was going to commit accidental suicide. And since the wall was centered on the other him, he was now dragged forward by it over the rather hard ground.

This time around the journey to the artifact seemed to last even longer than before as he was rather restricted in his movements by both the walls and the agonizingly slow pace of the other Xander. He spent the time pondering all the questions that the dreams had thrown up since he first got them, including the most important of those questions. Why had he suddenly started having these dreams? Was it something to do with Torala? Had Dawn's knife caused them to happen? And, of course, what were they good for if he could only remember them in some extreme cases?

He had not yet managed to come up with an answer when they finally reached the large room that contained the artifact. He was forced to watch the entire futile and frustrating attempt to find an entrance before the moment came he had been waiting for. As the other Xander walked to the entrances he went as far ahead as the wall allowed and tried to find out what he could about the passageways they led to. Of course, he already knew what one of them contained but he wanted to find out as much as he could about the other one. This however wasn't nearly enough as the other Xander turned back far too soon and he was dragged back.

He almost screamed from frustration when that happened. This had to be the reason he was having this dream and he wanted to collect as much information as he could, just in case he did actually survive. Once again he wondered how his real body was faring. He remembered reading somewhere that dreams only lasted seconds, but he wasn't entirely certain whether that counted for these strange dreams as well.

Walking back into the room, he didn't stop the scream of frustration as he noticed the other thing he had wanted to find out. Not only had he not found any information about the demons, or the tunnels through which they would come, but now he had also missed Dawn's entrance into the artifact again. Sulking he went to sit in the middle of the chamber, if he wasn't allowed to find out anything around here what was the use of even trying?

"Xander." Did he hear something? There was a soft sound that seemed to come from far away but he didn't know from where. "Xander!"

That had sounded like Dawn, an angry Dawn actually, but he couldn't remember her speaking after she had started doing the floating thing. Turning around he noticed her looking at him, not at the other Xander but directly at him. "Dawn?"

"Finally, I've been calling you for a long time now."

"But how? This is a dream," he pointed at the other version of himself. "See? This is one of those strange dreams I've told you about, so how can you talk to me?" Realization hit him at that moment. "Oh, I understand, I've started hallucinating in my dreams! That must be because of the lack of oxygen."

He could see her rolling her eyes, obviously annoyed at his antics. "Be serious for a moment Xander. While you don't really have as much oxygen as you need right now, that is no reason to overreact, oh wait I forgot, you always do." That last part had come out rather bitterly and he flinched a little at another reminder of his actions that morning.

"I'm sorry about that, okay! It's not like I was expecting to wake up with you after a night of passionate sex."

"And I told you I don't want to hear your excuses!" She glared at him while anger almost seemed to be radiating from her before she cocked her head to the side as if listening to someone. "We don't have time for this, apparently your body will run out of oxygen shortly, and if you die there won't be anyone that can take me back."

"Take you back? What're you talking about?"

"There are several things about to happen, and you must remember this when you wake up." When she cast an almost desperate look behind him, he too turned to look and noticed the other Xander was moments away from launching the explosive bolts. "When he passes out, you'll wake up so we have to hurry. Don't interrupt me anymore. You'll wake up when the artifact starts releasing oxygen. The demons that were left have already suffocated so you don't have to worry about them. Shortly after you have awoken I'll exit the artifact and the fires in the tunnels will be extinguished. I won't be able to walk so you'll have to carry me."

That did not sound good, they had to go a rather long way to get outside, and that was following the route they were already familiar with. But he kept listening as Dawn explained how his explosives had destroyed most of the demons that had been in the unknown passage, leaving it relatively safe for them to go through. Nodding his acceptance a possible plan entered his mind and he asked one question, which she barely had time to answer before…

. . . .

Air; sweet, sweet air. Gulping in the much-needed oxygen he tried to orient himself while getting to his feet. The fires in the passageways were still burning hot, but there was a constant flow of oxygen that kept him safe from losing consciousness again. Looking around at the demons surrounding him he could see that they were indeed dead, and he no longer needed to concern himself with them. They did spark something within him and he gasped as his mind was suddenly overflowing with memories of his dreams. But he hardly had time to notice them before they had once again disappeared into obscurity, leaving only one memory behind. With more than a little surprise he remembered his conversation with Dawn.

Knowing that time was short he immediately began his preparations. Gathering his weapons he put them where he could easily get to them while carrying a young woman. He hurried through reloading the crossbows, and was barely finished doing so, when the fires started to dim. Turning around he saw Dawn lying on the floor of the room and hurried to her, ignoring the little voice in his head that was disappointed he didn't know how she had gotten out of there. But the flames were almost gone, and he could hear the demons behind it. They might not be certain he was still alive, but he was sure that they wouldn't mind killing him if he wasn't.

After carrying her to their chosen exit he placed Dawn back on the ground and grabbed both crossbows. The flames were almost gone when he fired the same kind of salvo he had unleashed in the other tunnel minutes? Hours? Days before? By the time the bows were empty he had cleared out the tunnel once again. He hurriedly tried to reload the crossbows, but had only succeeded in doing so for one when the flames had disappeared completely and the demons started coming down the other tunnel. Dropping the crossbow he had been unable to reload in time he picked up Dawn and threw her over his shoulder before running as fast as he could.

Behind him Xander heard the demons approaching when they suddenly stopped An eerily loud click indicated that they had indeed found the crossbow and had attempted to kill him with it. He thanked his lucky stars that it had been empty, before he heard the softer sound indicating they had managed to find out how to switch bolts.

Trying to run even harder he felt as if his heart might explode, but he really needed to get out of the way before they pulled the trigger. A demon that had somehow survived his earlier actions went to stand in his, way and he cursed the decrease in speed necessary to shoot it. The demon however looked behind him and, apparently noticing the same danger he had, suddenly turned around and began sprinting away as well.

It seemed so quiet in the temple that even over his own laborious breathing he imagined he could hear it when the demons had pulled the trigger of the crossbow. Not waiting to confirm this he threw himself on the floor, covering Dawn with his body, and waited for the expected explosion. The sound was deafening and the scorching ball of fire, that went far to close over their heads, didn't improve matters much either.

The pressure wave that followed seemed far stronger than the previous one, and once again swept away all the air around him. It was only after he was able to breathe again that he dared to look at the carnage behind him. A wall of flame seemed to block everything from sight but he could imagine how the demons had been vaporized by the explosion and he chuckled a little. "Well, now at least I know what happens when you don't load them the way they should be." Throwing Dawn's limp body over his shoulder he grabbed his, correctly loaded, crossbow and continued on his way.

. . . .

Allowing himself to slide down the wall Xander admitted to himself he was completely out of ideas. It had been a long time since he had carried Dawn out of the room, and by now exhaustion was starting to overcome him. He didn't doubt that it wouldn't be long before he made some mistake in regards to one of the traps or that the demons would finally find him.

He had not seen any demons since the explosion and with a little luck they believed him dead, but he doubted that would last much longer. If the speed with which they had come after them was any indication the demons were highly organized, and had a way of communication that was irritating in its efficiency. But his biggest problem right now wasn't just that he was tired, or that the demons might be somewhere around. Right now his problem was so pathetic it was just sad, he was lost.

It wasn't his fault of course, but it had still happened. At first his intention had simply been to leave the demons as far behind as possible, but that meant he hadn't paid any attention on where he was going. In the end this had cost him, since by now he couldn't recognize any of the signs that adorned the walls, and were meant to indicate where he needed to go.

Signs? Not that he minded their presence here, but what were signs doing inside a temple and who had ever heard of a temple this size? It wasn't normal for someone to run around a temple for hours without coming to the same place twice. And even the traps didn't make any sense, the only times he had seen traps in temples was in movies like Indiana Jones.

No, he needed to concentrate on the here and now. Philosophizing about the way this temple was built could wait until later, when he could get answers from Torala. The woman was almost as annoying as Valen when it came to giving out information, and he still didn't know what to do about her either. NO! Think of a way to get out of here.

He uttered a long and despairing sigh, before looking at the young woman lying next to him. During the entire trek she hadn't made a sound or moved at all, if it hadn't been for the fact that she was breathing and had a pulse he might have thought her dead. Whatever had happened inside the artifact it seemed to have at least closed her wounds, she still looked like she needed medical attention, but at least she wasn't bleeding anymore.

It was strange how he had only discovered during that dream exactly how much she had been hiding her wounds, and by then it had been too late. Giving her some water might have done her some good; it might have even woken her up so she could tell him what all the signs meant. But they hadn't taken any water or food along expecting to be back rather quickly. Licking his parched lips he made a silent vow never to enter any religious building without at least enough water for a day. And it wouldn't matter whether it was a gigantic temple or an itty bitty tiny shrine that barely fit one person at a time.

But now it was time to think of a way to get out of there. That sign over there, the one that looked like some kind of squiggly thing that was being eaten by a zigzagging circle-like thingie, had to indicate the exit shouldn't it? Or was the exit the curvy triangle with hands that seemed to be fighting with the weird looking cow?

This was so frustrating, back in Sunnydale he had usually looked for demons by comparing the pictures to the description Buffy had given but now he was here where there was no simple picture indicating where the exit was. Why couldn't the monks have acted like the rest of the world and post clearly lighted exit signs? If they had wanted to be different he would have even accepted it if they had made them purple or another weird color.

Closing his eyes he leant his head back against the wall, he really needed to focus and maybe a couple of minutes rest would help him to clear his mind.

. . . .

It was a sound that awoke him, the sound of demons coming closer in their search for the two of them. Luckily they hadn't felt the need to be silent, and as fast as he could Xander picked up Dawn and silently, but still as fast as possible, made his way into one of the tunnels. A fresh surge of adrenaline had flushed the fatigue from his body faster then the entire contents of a Starbucks would have. He still didn't know where he was going, but he made up his mind to just go with the flow until he found something he recognized.

The demons behind him were slowly catching up however, and he could hear them only a couple of turns away from him. They would catch up with him sooner or later, and when that happened he needed to be ready for them. He walked on until he found a spot that seemed adequate for his needs and lay Dawn down on the ground just behind the bend in the tunnel.

Checking his crossbow he positioned himself in a place that was only barely covered by the light of the torches. Kneeling he sighted down the passageway the demons would have to pass through. He had maybe 30 yards of unobstructed space in front of him that they would have to cross in order to reach him, so he should be able to get some good use out of the crossbow. Not knowing how many demons there were, Xander waited with his first shot until he was fairly certain they were all there, and didn't have a chance to get back into cover soon.

Normally he would have wanted to kill all of them, but that didn't seem particularly doable in this situation. During the altercation at the artifact he had managed to kill several demons with his crossbows, but he had also noticed that some of these supposedly dead had managed to get up to again. And sometimes even continue their attack, before in the end they had been consumed by the explosions.

He was sure that to kill all of the demons he was now facing something like that would be necessary, but he felt that suffocating once on a single day was more than enough. His job right now was to get out of there, and to do so it wasn't necessary to kill everybody that stood between him and the entrance. So when he let his first bolt fly it was of the standard type and aimed at the throat of one the demons. He didn't know whether this was a deadly shot, but it would take the creature out of the fight. Shifting his aim slightly he managed to take down a second demon before they had even noticed his presence.

Once that happened however it became clear that he wasn't the only one with ranged weaponry and he was the only thing that saved his life at that moment was the way he was partially hidden in the shadows. Arrows and knives hit the wall all around him and one arrow even managed to pierce his suit, to become embedded in his left arm. He got the message and decided it might be best to fall back.

Diving to safety behind the bend, he almost screamed when his roll jarred the arrow. With tears in his eye he grabbed hold of it, but when a gentle pull revealed that doing that would take a big hunk of flesh along with it, he decided on just breaking the haft. Unfortunately, having seen that sort of thing done on television didn't really help him in figuring out the dynamics of how to do it with only one hand. When he finally managed to break of most of the shaft he cursed whatever moron had come up with the idea of smart demons.

He looked around the corner and noticed the demons were gone, which could only mean two things. Either they had decided it might be best to take cover as well, which would mean they were at the other end of this particular stretch, or the demons had had decided to come at him from the other direction. As this was the more likely option, he once again took hold of his friend and threw her ever his left shoulder. Doing so jarred what remained of the shaft in his arm and the unexpected crippling pain caused him to go down to his knees for a moment. He really should have convinced Dawn to turn around when she had been hurt, but as they say, hindsight is twenty-twenty. So now he just had to make the best of this situation.

Once he was upright again, Xander started walking as fast as he could down the tunnel. Unfortunately time was his enemy here as his opponents would know the shortest route that led to him, and would undoubtedly be moving to cut of any escape he could make. There was no way he would make it past them if he walked, so gritting his teeth he started running and with every step he took it seemed like his arm was on fire.

When he came to the next room however, his action seemed to have worked and he needed to decide on the route to take. He didn't know how they had been able to trace him before and he doubted he could hide his trail, especially since it his bleeding arm was the local equivalent of a big neon sign. What he could do however was outsmart them.

Since encountering the demons he had been running in a fairly straight line and they would probably figure he would continue to do so. Therefore he chose one of the other possible directions at random and ran through that particular passageway. Once again it wasn't a tunnel that he recognized and he was rapidly starting to lose whatever hope he had left.

The demons knew his general position and would soon be moving in from all directions to confront him, and he was still running around somewhere he didn't recognize. Arriving in the next room he quickly looked around for the exits while sweat had started running into his eye, obscuring what little vision he had left. Wildly blinking he almost missed it, and he had to look again before he truly believed it. There, in front of him, was one of the sweetest sights he had ever seen; unless someone else had decided to start redecorating with a sword he had just found the way to the exit.

. . . .

Full of restored hope he ignored both pain and fatigue while moving through the tunnel. It wasn't until the next chamber that he recognized where on the route he was, but once he did Xander felt even better. There was only a ten minute walk before he'd reach the exit' and he was confident in his ability to keep going for that long. But since things couldn't possibly go as well as that he soon started hearing the sound of running demons behind him again. Between focusing on that sound, the pain in his arm, and the sweat that kept running in his eyes, he couldn't pay all that much attention to what was happening in front of him.

Demons were now closing in behind him fast, and he risked a cautious look behind him to check if they were in sight yet. When he could see the first of the demons he put in an extra burst of speed in the hopes of outrunning them. It was only then that he noticed the smell, and by that time it was almost too late, as the pit was only several yards in front of him. Having no other choice he didn't slow down but shifted Dawn a little and prepared himself for the jump, and the pain it would undoubtedly bring. He pushed off as hard as he could, and hoped it was enough to offset the difficulty his wounds and Dawn's extra weight brought.

Halfway through his jump Xander knew he had made it and had a moment to feel happy about this before he felt an impact on his back, throwing him off balance. He lost his grip on Dawn but noticed with relieve that she landed on the other side of the hole before he crashed there himself. During his fall he lost his grip on the crossbow, and couldn't immediately see where it had landed.

The pursuing demon had no intention to wait for him to find it however, as it followed Xander over the hole and landed in a graceful looking crouch.

"Uh, hi?" His attempt at friendly conversation didn't appear to be appreciated, and he had to roll to the side before he was skewered by the demon's sword.

Scrabbling to his feet he took one of his knives and made to stab the demon with it, a move that failed spectacularly as the demon easily disarmed him. Moving back a couple of steps, Xander could see the area behind the demon and was relieved to find that no other demons were in sight. The grey demon in front of him however had a scary grin on his face, but when he said something Xander was pretty certain was an insult he had enough.

"You're not the brightest demon are you? Back home they can at least speak English, but even that seems to be too much trouble for you."

It had been uttered almost breathlessly, but while the demon couldn't understand him, it didn't appear to like the fact that his prey was still able to talk back and decided to correct that. Having been able to draw his own sword Xander moved to block the stroke, but was almost hammered into the ground when the swords met.

Besides being a lot stronger the demon also had the advantage of not being wounded and with Xander now apparently at his mercy he had decided to take his time. However, dieing was a part of Xander's plans for the near future, and he looked around to see if there was anything he could use against what increasingly began to look like his executioner.

There was only one thing that might enable him to kill this hulking monster and he tried to position the playing demon so he could make use of it. When he finally had managed this he uttered a wild cry and threw his sword as hard as he could at the demon. This maneuver seemed to confuse it even while it neatly sidestepped the flying sword. Its moment of inattention however cost it dearly as Xander crashed into the demon, feeling the short spikes that covered its armor.

Like all of his plans lately, or at least the ones that seemed to work, this one had been fairly simple but carried a lot of risk. He had carefully maneuvered the demon in front of the pit and crashing into it had been his attempt to push it in. For a moment it seemed to work as the demon was teetering on the brink, but then it seemed to right itself and chuckled at what he probably thought of as the final attempt of the weak human. Xander however was still more or less standing against the demon and hoping that the demon had some similarities to human physiology he copied the move Dawn had made in one of his dreams. When the demon then stopped laughing and moved its hand to its crotch, all that he needed to do was give a little push before that situation was resolved.

Having lost his own sword he secured Dawn's on his back before picking up the crossbow and quickly checking it for damage. When he found the damage to be only cosmetic he let out a sigh of relieve that he had not lost another weapon. He looked around for the lost knife but when he couldn't immediately find it Xander decided it wasn't that important and once more carrying Dawn continued to the exit. There wasn't far to go now, and without any rooms or passages to encounter until he reached the temple doors he believed he might be done fighting for the day.

Upon reaching the room leading to the outer doors he could hear demons approaching from all directions but they would be too late to stop him. Crashing through the doors he made to run to the door that would lead him back to Torala's house when he stopped halfway down the steps.

"Oh come on, this isn't fair."

The despairing wail didn't seem to change the situation however, and Xander had to admit to himself that there was indeed an entire army of demons standing in front of him.

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Post-fic comments: Okay, does this one qualify as a cliffhanger? With a little under 15.000 words to go we're nearing the end of the story. Only one chapter left before the epilogue. Let me know what you think of it, the good and especially the bad. Criticism improves my writing :-)

I managed to post it before they started working on the site, so it's earlier than expected. Enjoy.