In Beauty,
Nimue
"For it is in giving that we receive-
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned.
And it's in dying that we are born to eternal life. " - Prayer of Balance (Chapter Twenty-two - Meant to Be)
Author: Nimue
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Spike/Buffy (Most major characters included)
Feedback: Yes, please
For instant notification of fic releases, straight to your mailbox, please visit Always_Everyday@yahoogroups.com. Also, please visit Always_Everyday's sister group How to Make a Vampire Sundae for fiction with adult content.
The rest of the story can be found present chapters are being posted on my live journal All characters (save for the ones I made up) belong to someone other than me; they belong to Mutant Enemy, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel the Series, Fox, WB, their affiliates, lawyers and all sorts of other folks that aren't me. :::sigh::::
Summary: The Scooby Gang has a meeting on what to do next, and some interesting information about good and evil comes out in the process.
Balance
The television flashed gray static silently at the edge of the table. Spike and Buffy had watched the tape of the message Willow had carried. The Prophesy. The room was silent, Buffy's hand pressed over her mouth, eyes wide but still holding their strength. Spike held Emma against him, her head lolled to his shoulder.
She seemed sad, but not surprised.
It was a bit frightening when a seven-year-old was unsurprised by horrible things.
Spike took a breath to speak. Closed his mouth. Began again. Stopped.
"Do we know what to do to prevent it?" Buffy finally asked for him.
Wesley looked down at the piles of papers, written in his own hand, lying before him. From the looks of the size of the stack, he'd been working straight through the weekend. "I'd love to say that there was a pat answer, Buffy," he began softly, "but there isn't."
"So, we just... let them do their worst then, is that it?" Spike finally contributed his voice gruff from anger and emotion. "No answer. They win. "
Giles looked at the Vampire for a long moment, wanting to be angry. Checking himself. Looking at Anya standing against the wall, fidgeting. Imagining what it would feel like for him to hear the same news. "I'd like to think the answer's there, Spike. We just haven't found it yet."
Spike opened his mouth for another verbal assault when Willow interrupted, trying to smooth it over. "Well, I ... I wouldn't say that we... that we have nothing. I mean NO plan."
"Right," Wesley agreed, helping her out. "I'm sorry to have presented it as a hopeless cause. All I meant was, in most Prophesies, one can find a loophole. A glitch, like a spell missing a word. Something that takes away the potency. In this particular one, there seems to be no such glitch. In its simplicity, it has made itself seemingly foolproof. But that doesn't mean there is no way to counteract the potency from the outside."
"Yeah," Willow agreed, her voice attempting brightness and failing. "I mean, there are other things we can try. You know. Sort of like you try to go for making peace first, but sometimes you can't and you have to go to war and then you just... have to win."
Xander smiled at his friend, shaking his head. Willow trying to make war analogies was like a butterfly talking about assault rifles. It just didn't fit. "Well, then, what do we do?"
"As we don't know what the loophole *is* in this Prophesy," Wesley began, rubbing a hand over the three days of stubble on his chin, "I believe our best bet is to attack this on multiple fronts."
Giles nodded, his fingers massaging his temples. "Yes. We need to try and look at each angle. Approach each source of potential help and watch each outlet of evil that could be involved in this. In other words..."
"Divide and conquer," Buffy said quietly. "You need us to split up to do this."
Dawn sat on the hutch, Brian at her side. They'd arrived about half way through the video, but she'd already known the basics of what was happening after verbally accosting Giles at home the morning after she'd visited Spike. "So, what do you need me to do?"
Giles sighed. "Dawn, I don't know that there is much you can do. Although..."
"What?" Spike asked, his protective streak when it came to Summers girls coming out to play. "Not going to put her out there. Bad enough that Buffy and the Mite are a part of this."
The Watcher shook his head. "I have no intention of endangering her, nor anyone else. Everyone's participation in this is voluntary, as we have no clue how this Prophesy is coming to fruition. "
"Well, I'm in," Anya chimed from across the room. The whole group turned to look at her, not really expecting her to be the first to jump in with support. "What? It's a baby! I'm not letting them get babies. Even as a demon, that's just... wrong."
Spike chuckled. "Leave it to you to cut to the chase."
"It is," she grumbled.
Giles nodded in agreement. "And that is why we are going to do our best to prevent this, but Buffy..."
Spike's eyes narrowed as the Watcher looked at his charge. Buffy stared at him, stalwart and solid, nodding.
"I know," she answered.
"Know what?" Spike asked. "Don't think I was in on this part of the plan."
Buffy looked over at him. "Spike, we haven't talked about anything, but I know what he's going to say."
"What's that?" Spike asked, his agitation beginning to bubble to the surface. Emma shifted in his lap and faced him, her hands going to his face, calming him. She started to glow softly, her fingers cooling the boiling of his blood.
Buffy swallowed. "I know that if we try everything, Spike, *everything*, and we can't find an answer, we're going to have to... we're going to have to talk more."
Spike shook his head, Emma's palms still on his cheeks. "No, Pet. There won't be any more talk on that."
"Spike," Giles said softly.
Spike didn't raise his voice. Didn't move from Emma's touch. Didn't do anything but close his eyes and speak. "No. We find a way."
The room fell silent for a long moment before the sound of Dawn's feet swinging back and forth into the hutch became a heartbeat to the room. "I... I'm with him," she said quietly.
Buffy nodded, biting her lip. "Okay then." She looked to Giles. "What do we do?"
Wesley answered first. "As Willow suggested, we start with the basics. A meeting."
"Meeting?" Xander asked. "Like executive board of Hell?"
Willow shrugged. "Well, kinda. Yeah. But it's worth a try."
"Actually, the executive boards of both sides," Giles added. "And it is worth the effort."
"How do you propose to pull this off?" Spike asked, settling Emma back towards the table and trying to bite back his anger.
"Invitations?" Willow said, shyly smiling. "I was thinking that we could contact the ... well, Emma's other family, with her help."
"Oh no you don't!" Spike snapped. "Not sending the tot anywhere."
"Daddy," Emma said softly, "I... I go there. A lot. It's safe."
Buffy and Spike looked at her, astonished. She left? Went somewhere? And they didn't even know? How? When?
Questions left for later.
"I hadn't intended to allow her to go herself," Cyrus continued. "I am an emissary. I will escort her. I assure you, this is the safest part of any of it, as nothing can harm her in her travels above. A move like that, even if I believe the forces of evil stupid enough to try it, would be an outward declaration of war not only against our Queen, but all of the Queens of Heaven. It would give them just cause to upset the balance of good and evil."
"Isn't that what we're going for here?" Buffy asked, cocking her head. "I mean, the whole destruction of evil? Especially the evil doing this?"
Cyrus sighed, nodding. "It is. But, alas, it doesn't quite work like that, Buffy. Were the Queens to intervene now, when the battle is in this plane rather than an assault on their own, it would change the context of reality."
"How so?" Spike asked, cocking an eyebrow. Riling the Queens up sounded like a good way to solve this once and for all.
"Well, first of all, as we said, it would tip the balance of good and evil. And as much as we are forces to fight evil – keep its numbers down on this level of reality – we cannot go without it. It is part of the fabric of existence on this plane." He sighed, looking at the blank faces in the room. The concept of total annihilation of evil is what these people had based their lives upon. Telling them that it was not possible was not going to make him the most popular man at the party.
"This is not an ethereal plane. Not a Heavenly world," Cyrus began again. "It is a lower realm. Not like the Hell dimensions, but not like the Heavens either. It's a combination of both. True that this realm needs nowhere near as much evil as it does good to function; far less than it has, to be honest; but it needs *some*, or it becomes... extinct. The fabric crumples. I certainly am not purporting that this is good or bad. It is not mine to judge. Merely law. That in a lower realm, there must be evil or there can be no good. There can be ... nothing."
"Wouldn't it just become all Heavenish without it?" Buffy asked, complete confusion on her face.
"In theory," Cyrus answered. "But humans are not heavenly beings. Mortals, even semi-mortals, are imperfect. Made up mostly of good, but there is evil in all. It is just overcome by the good of most."
Wesley and Giles seemed to be the first to wrap their minds around the concept and to guess the next logical next step in the argument. Wesley chanced putting it to words.
"Total annihilation of evil would also preclude demons from this reality," the youngest Watcher said softly. "Of all sorts, and regardless of their current disposition."
Cyrus nodded, his eyes flitting to Spike. To Anya. Giles looked down. His son was part demon. Takina. Oz and his two children.
Half of the occupants of the room would be summarily obliterated were the balance to be destroyed. Just by the nature of their being, not by the content of who they had become.
Buffy looked at Spike. Thought of Will. Of the child inside of her. Gone. Were she to succeed in what she'd always thought of as her mission, she'd be destroying her own, as well as the ones who were destroying those that she was sworn to protect. Her eyes closed. Another thing to try and wrap her mind around.
"So, we must keep the balance," Cyrus completed softly. "Lest the other side have no grip on this world. They will not chance that to harm Emma in her travels."
Spike nodded, the concept of who he really was... Vampire.... Demon... hitting him smack in the face for the first time in a very long time. "You'll stay with her?"
Cyrus nodded. "She is my charge as well as my friend, Spike."
"What about the other side?" Buffy asked.
"That's where I come in," Willow replied. "I am thinking that I can send them a message without having to go there. We could probably do it to the good side too, but I don't know if I have enough to do both before tomorrow night."
"Tomorrow?" Buffy asked, eyes widening once again. "Tomorrow?"
Giles nodded. "Yes, Buffy. We need to act as soon as possible. Tomorrow is a fortuitous night, astrologically. So tomorrow it will be."
"Where?" Spike asked, his brow furrowed.
"Here," Wesley answered. "It is the most central location, not to mention that it's the only place that we can set everything up in time. There is no way that we can risk doing it over the opening of the Hellmouth, nor could we remove all of the rubble in time."
That made Spike chuckle. "Right then. Looks like we're entertaining, Pet."
Buffy shook her head. "Then what? I mean, there has to be a plan B."
Giles nodded. "Several, actually." He stood, beginning to pace as if walking helped his brain function at this point. "Regardless of what truces we make, we cannot trust that the darker forces will abide by them. So we will have to watch them. Not only that, but we will be well served to follow their... associates... on this plane."
"Okay, how?" Xander asked, his hands clasped nervously in front of him on the table. This is usually the part that spelled tortuous disaster.
"This is where the divide and conquer part comes in, right?" Buffy contributed.
Giles nodded. "A demon will need to go across, with Dawn's help, to the Hell dimension involved. The Red Mansion."
A shudder went through both Buffy and Spike, remembering the treatment they'd both received at the hands of Luke. Giles caught it and countered it.
"Buffy, for obvious reasons, I will not allow you to go. And Spike... you'll be needed here."
"I'll go," Anya said quietly, again garnering the attention of the rest of the group.
"You most certainly will *not*," Giles blurted, his own protectiveness coming out.
"Who better?" Anya replied, picking up a carrot stick and munching quietly. "I mean, I've been there Rupert. I know the layout. I can keep an eye on them and not get lost. Besides, we know I can cross and we know that Willow can do that invisibility thing so I can't be seen."
Willow nodded. "That one's easy."
"And Dawn can let me in," the demon concluded, taking another bite of the carrot. "So, it really is the only logical choice."
Giles turned red with anger. "You have other things to consider," he snapped. "Your son for example. And..."
"All of us have other things to consider," she said quietly, walking towards him, wrapping her arms around his neck. "And I'm leaving my son in the most capable hands of anyone I know. And you're good with those hands, too."
The Watcher blushed as she kissed his cheek. Buffy and Dawn both eww'd quietly and rolled their eyes.
"I don't..." Giles wavered.
"You don't have a choice. Just get me back and give me many orgasmic rewards."
"And on that note," Xander interrupted.
"S'very... brave of you, Pet," Spike said quietly, nodding his thanks to Anya.
"Don't worry," she said brightly. "You'll owe me too."
Buffy and Giles both shot glances at the demon.
"What? In a totally non-orgasmic kind of way," Anya corrected, trying to get the evil glare away from her. Buffy and her Watcher both relaxed, nodding.
"What else?" Buffy asked. "What do we do?"
"Well, we really won't know until we see how this meeting tomorrow goes," Wesley answered. "We'll have a better idea of how to approach this once we find out what we're dealing with."
"I'd agree," Cyrus contributed. "I think that the Queen of the Sky will have a good idea of what Luke and his company will do next once she's seen what he's up to as well."
"So we wait," Spike grumbled, frustrated.
Giles, Wesley and Cyrus nodded. "We wait," Giles finally said. "In the meantime, Cyrus, do you want to take Emma and...?"
Cyrus nodded, walking towards Spike, who instinctively tightened his grip around her. "Now?"
"It's only polite to give as much warning as possible," Cyrus responded, stooping down in front of them and taking Emma's hand. "Do you mind, my dear?"
Emma shook her head, smiling brightly. "Nope." She turned her gaze to her father. "I'll be okay, daddy. It's just... you've seen it. It's not scary."
"Maybe for you, Mite," Spike answered, leaning down to kiss the tip of her nose, then turning to Cyrus "If you let a hair on her head..."
"I assure you," Cyrus comforted, patting Spike's shoulder and taking the little girl's hand. Emma hopped from her father's lap and let herself be led over to Buffy. She leaned up, kissing her mother's cheek, then headed upstairs, Cyrus at her heels.
"Where does she go? How does she get there?" Buffy asked Giles as the group began to get up, moving around.
"Apparently," Giles asked, "she can go at any time from anywhere. But she chooses her room because the fairies stay behind to protect the gateway."
"The gateway?" Spike asked.
"Moving from one dimension to another, no matter how well versed one is, creates a temporary gateway. If she chooses to do it, she leaves the fairies behind to make sure nothing enters or leaves other than herself. She told Cyrus that she doesn't want anything bad to come after Will," Giles responded. "I think that, an ancient being or not, her parents are still indestructible heroes to her."
"Fairly," Spike agreed, smiling slightly and standing from his chair. Buffy got up as well and began to move towards him.
"Spike?" Giles asked, before the two had reached each other.
Spike turned his head, acknowledging the Watcher. "Yeah?"
"Would you mind if we had a word in private?"
Spike raised an eyebrow, but saw the seriousness in Giles's countenance. "Right," he agreed, softly, reaching out to Buffy and pulling her in for a quick kiss. "Guess I've got to go entertain daddy dearest."
Buffy slapped his arm playfully. "I'm sure it's nothing. Or at least, nothing more apocalyptic, or he'd have me there too."
Spike nodded. "Be back, Pet. "Another quick kiss to her nose.
"Spike?" Giles called from the front door.
"All right. Keep your pants on."
Spike squeezed Buffy's hand and headed off out the door.
To be contd.
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned.
And it's in dying that we are born to eternal life. " - Prayer of Balance (Chapter Twenty-two - Meant to Be)
Author: Nimue
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Spike/Buffy (Most major characters included)
Feedback: Yes, please
For instant notification of fic releases, straight to your mailbox, please visit Always_Everyday@yahoogroups.com. Also, please visit Always_Everyday's sister group How to Make a Vampire Sundae for fiction with adult content.
The rest of the story can be found present chapters are being posted on my live journal All characters (save for the ones I made up) belong to someone other than me; they belong to Mutant Enemy, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel the Series, Fox, WB, their affiliates, lawyers and all sorts of other folks that aren't me. :::sigh::::
Summary: The Scooby Gang has a meeting on what to do next, and some interesting information about good and evil comes out in the process.
Balance
The television flashed gray static silently at the edge of the table. Spike and Buffy had watched the tape of the message Willow had carried. The Prophesy. The room was silent, Buffy's hand pressed over her mouth, eyes wide but still holding their strength. Spike held Emma against him, her head lolled to his shoulder.
She seemed sad, but not surprised.
It was a bit frightening when a seven-year-old was unsurprised by horrible things.
Spike took a breath to speak. Closed his mouth. Began again. Stopped.
"Do we know what to do to prevent it?" Buffy finally asked for him.
Wesley looked down at the piles of papers, written in his own hand, lying before him. From the looks of the size of the stack, he'd been working straight through the weekend. "I'd love to say that there was a pat answer, Buffy," he began softly, "but there isn't."
"So, we just... let them do their worst then, is that it?" Spike finally contributed his voice gruff from anger and emotion. "No answer. They win. "
Giles looked at the Vampire for a long moment, wanting to be angry. Checking himself. Looking at Anya standing against the wall, fidgeting. Imagining what it would feel like for him to hear the same news. "I'd like to think the answer's there, Spike. We just haven't found it yet."
Spike opened his mouth for another verbal assault when Willow interrupted, trying to smooth it over. "Well, I ... I wouldn't say that we... that we have nothing. I mean NO plan."
"Right," Wesley agreed, helping her out. "I'm sorry to have presented it as a hopeless cause. All I meant was, in most Prophesies, one can find a loophole. A glitch, like a spell missing a word. Something that takes away the potency. In this particular one, there seems to be no such glitch. In its simplicity, it has made itself seemingly foolproof. But that doesn't mean there is no way to counteract the potency from the outside."
"Yeah," Willow agreed, her voice attempting brightness and failing. "I mean, there are other things we can try. You know. Sort of like you try to go for making peace first, but sometimes you can't and you have to go to war and then you just... have to win."
Xander smiled at his friend, shaking his head. Willow trying to make war analogies was like a butterfly talking about assault rifles. It just didn't fit. "Well, then, what do we do?"
"As we don't know what the loophole *is* in this Prophesy," Wesley began, rubbing a hand over the three days of stubble on his chin, "I believe our best bet is to attack this on multiple fronts."
Giles nodded, his fingers massaging his temples. "Yes. We need to try and look at each angle. Approach each source of potential help and watch each outlet of evil that could be involved in this. In other words..."
"Divide and conquer," Buffy said quietly. "You need us to split up to do this."
Dawn sat on the hutch, Brian at her side. They'd arrived about half way through the video, but she'd already known the basics of what was happening after verbally accosting Giles at home the morning after she'd visited Spike. "So, what do you need me to do?"
Giles sighed. "Dawn, I don't know that there is much you can do. Although..."
"What?" Spike asked, his protective streak when it came to Summers girls coming out to play. "Not going to put her out there. Bad enough that Buffy and the Mite are a part of this."
The Watcher shook his head. "I have no intention of endangering her, nor anyone else. Everyone's participation in this is voluntary, as we have no clue how this Prophesy is coming to fruition. "
"Well, I'm in," Anya chimed from across the room. The whole group turned to look at her, not really expecting her to be the first to jump in with support. "What? It's a baby! I'm not letting them get babies. Even as a demon, that's just... wrong."
Spike chuckled. "Leave it to you to cut to the chase."
"It is," she grumbled.
Giles nodded in agreement. "And that is why we are going to do our best to prevent this, but Buffy..."
Spike's eyes narrowed as the Watcher looked at his charge. Buffy stared at him, stalwart and solid, nodding.
"I know," she answered.
"Know what?" Spike asked. "Don't think I was in on this part of the plan."
Buffy looked over at him. "Spike, we haven't talked about anything, but I know what he's going to say."
"What's that?" Spike asked, his agitation beginning to bubble to the surface. Emma shifted in his lap and faced him, her hands going to his face, calming him. She started to glow softly, her fingers cooling the boiling of his blood.
Buffy swallowed. "I know that if we try everything, Spike, *everything*, and we can't find an answer, we're going to have to... we're going to have to talk more."
Spike shook his head, Emma's palms still on his cheeks. "No, Pet. There won't be any more talk on that."
"Spike," Giles said softly.
Spike didn't raise his voice. Didn't move from Emma's touch. Didn't do anything but close his eyes and speak. "No. We find a way."
The room fell silent for a long moment before the sound of Dawn's feet swinging back and forth into the hutch became a heartbeat to the room. "I... I'm with him," she said quietly.
Buffy nodded, biting her lip. "Okay then." She looked to Giles. "What do we do?"
Wesley answered first. "As Willow suggested, we start with the basics. A meeting."
"Meeting?" Xander asked. "Like executive board of Hell?"
Willow shrugged. "Well, kinda. Yeah. But it's worth a try."
"Actually, the executive boards of both sides," Giles added. "And it is worth the effort."
"How do you propose to pull this off?" Spike asked, settling Emma back towards the table and trying to bite back his anger.
"Invitations?" Willow said, shyly smiling. "I was thinking that we could contact the ... well, Emma's other family, with her help."
"Oh no you don't!" Spike snapped. "Not sending the tot anywhere."
"Daddy," Emma said softly, "I... I go there. A lot. It's safe."
Buffy and Spike looked at her, astonished. She left? Went somewhere? And they didn't even know? How? When?
Questions left for later.
"I hadn't intended to allow her to go herself," Cyrus continued. "I am an emissary. I will escort her. I assure you, this is the safest part of any of it, as nothing can harm her in her travels above. A move like that, even if I believe the forces of evil stupid enough to try it, would be an outward declaration of war not only against our Queen, but all of the Queens of Heaven. It would give them just cause to upset the balance of good and evil."
"Isn't that what we're going for here?" Buffy asked, cocking her head. "I mean, the whole destruction of evil? Especially the evil doing this?"
Cyrus sighed, nodding. "It is. But, alas, it doesn't quite work like that, Buffy. Were the Queens to intervene now, when the battle is in this plane rather than an assault on their own, it would change the context of reality."
"How so?" Spike asked, cocking an eyebrow. Riling the Queens up sounded like a good way to solve this once and for all.
"Well, first of all, as we said, it would tip the balance of good and evil. And as much as we are forces to fight evil – keep its numbers down on this level of reality – we cannot go without it. It is part of the fabric of existence on this plane." He sighed, looking at the blank faces in the room. The concept of total annihilation of evil is what these people had based their lives upon. Telling them that it was not possible was not going to make him the most popular man at the party.
"This is not an ethereal plane. Not a Heavenly world," Cyrus began again. "It is a lower realm. Not like the Hell dimensions, but not like the Heavens either. It's a combination of both. True that this realm needs nowhere near as much evil as it does good to function; far less than it has, to be honest; but it needs *some*, or it becomes... extinct. The fabric crumples. I certainly am not purporting that this is good or bad. It is not mine to judge. Merely law. That in a lower realm, there must be evil or there can be no good. There can be ... nothing."
"Wouldn't it just become all Heavenish without it?" Buffy asked, complete confusion on her face.
"In theory," Cyrus answered. "But humans are not heavenly beings. Mortals, even semi-mortals, are imperfect. Made up mostly of good, but there is evil in all. It is just overcome by the good of most."
Wesley and Giles seemed to be the first to wrap their minds around the concept and to guess the next logical next step in the argument. Wesley chanced putting it to words.
"Total annihilation of evil would also preclude demons from this reality," the youngest Watcher said softly. "Of all sorts, and regardless of their current disposition."
Cyrus nodded, his eyes flitting to Spike. To Anya. Giles looked down. His son was part demon. Takina. Oz and his two children.
Half of the occupants of the room would be summarily obliterated were the balance to be destroyed. Just by the nature of their being, not by the content of who they had become.
Buffy looked at Spike. Thought of Will. Of the child inside of her. Gone. Were she to succeed in what she'd always thought of as her mission, she'd be destroying her own, as well as the ones who were destroying those that she was sworn to protect. Her eyes closed. Another thing to try and wrap her mind around.
"So, we must keep the balance," Cyrus completed softly. "Lest the other side have no grip on this world. They will not chance that to harm Emma in her travels."
Spike nodded, the concept of who he really was... Vampire.... Demon... hitting him smack in the face for the first time in a very long time. "You'll stay with her?"
Cyrus nodded. "She is my charge as well as my friend, Spike."
"What about the other side?" Buffy asked.
"That's where I come in," Willow replied. "I am thinking that I can send them a message without having to go there. We could probably do it to the good side too, but I don't know if I have enough to do both before tomorrow night."
"Tomorrow?" Buffy asked, eyes widening once again. "Tomorrow?"
Giles nodded. "Yes, Buffy. We need to act as soon as possible. Tomorrow is a fortuitous night, astrologically. So tomorrow it will be."
"Where?" Spike asked, his brow furrowed.
"Here," Wesley answered. "It is the most central location, not to mention that it's the only place that we can set everything up in time. There is no way that we can risk doing it over the opening of the Hellmouth, nor could we remove all of the rubble in time."
That made Spike chuckle. "Right then. Looks like we're entertaining, Pet."
Buffy shook her head. "Then what? I mean, there has to be a plan B."
Giles nodded. "Several, actually." He stood, beginning to pace as if walking helped his brain function at this point. "Regardless of what truces we make, we cannot trust that the darker forces will abide by them. So we will have to watch them. Not only that, but we will be well served to follow their... associates... on this plane."
"Okay, how?" Xander asked, his hands clasped nervously in front of him on the table. This is usually the part that spelled tortuous disaster.
"This is where the divide and conquer part comes in, right?" Buffy contributed.
Giles nodded. "A demon will need to go across, with Dawn's help, to the Hell dimension involved. The Red Mansion."
A shudder went through both Buffy and Spike, remembering the treatment they'd both received at the hands of Luke. Giles caught it and countered it.
"Buffy, for obvious reasons, I will not allow you to go. And Spike... you'll be needed here."
"I'll go," Anya said quietly, again garnering the attention of the rest of the group.
"You most certainly will *not*," Giles blurted, his own protectiveness coming out.
"Who better?" Anya replied, picking up a carrot stick and munching quietly. "I mean, I've been there Rupert. I know the layout. I can keep an eye on them and not get lost. Besides, we know I can cross and we know that Willow can do that invisibility thing so I can't be seen."
Willow nodded. "That one's easy."
"And Dawn can let me in," the demon concluded, taking another bite of the carrot. "So, it really is the only logical choice."
Giles turned red with anger. "You have other things to consider," he snapped. "Your son for example. And..."
"All of us have other things to consider," she said quietly, walking towards him, wrapping her arms around his neck. "And I'm leaving my son in the most capable hands of anyone I know. And you're good with those hands, too."
The Watcher blushed as she kissed his cheek. Buffy and Dawn both eww'd quietly and rolled their eyes.
"I don't..." Giles wavered.
"You don't have a choice. Just get me back and give me many orgasmic rewards."
"And on that note," Xander interrupted.
"S'very... brave of you, Pet," Spike said quietly, nodding his thanks to Anya.
"Don't worry," she said brightly. "You'll owe me too."
Buffy and Giles both shot glances at the demon.
"What? In a totally non-orgasmic kind of way," Anya corrected, trying to get the evil glare away from her. Buffy and her Watcher both relaxed, nodding.
"What else?" Buffy asked. "What do we do?"
"Well, we really won't know until we see how this meeting tomorrow goes," Wesley answered. "We'll have a better idea of how to approach this once we find out what we're dealing with."
"I'd agree," Cyrus contributed. "I think that the Queen of the Sky will have a good idea of what Luke and his company will do next once she's seen what he's up to as well."
"So we wait," Spike grumbled, frustrated.
Giles, Wesley and Cyrus nodded. "We wait," Giles finally said. "In the meantime, Cyrus, do you want to take Emma and...?"
Cyrus nodded, walking towards Spike, who instinctively tightened his grip around her. "Now?"
"It's only polite to give as much warning as possible," Cyrus responded, stooping down in front of them and taking Emma's hand. "Do you mind, my dear?"
Emma shook her head, smiling brightly. "Nope." She turned her gaze to her father. "I'll be okay, daddy. It's just... you've seen it. It's not scary."
"Maybe for you, Mite," Spike answered, leaning down to kiss the tip of her nose, then turning to Cyrus "If you let a hair on her head..."
"I assure you," Cyrus comforted, patting Spike's shoulder and taking the little girl's hand. Emma hopped from her father's lap and let herself be led over to Buffy. She leaned up, kissing her mother's cheek, then headed upstairs, Cyrus at her heels.
"Where does she go? How does she get there?" Buffy asked Giles as the group began to get up, moving around.
"Apparently," Giles asked, "she can go at any time from anywhere. But she chooses her room because the fairies stay behind to protect the gateway."
"The gateway?" Spike asked.
"Moving from one dimension to another, no matter how well versed one is, creates a temporary gateway. If she chooses to do it, she leaves the fairies behind to make sure nothing enters or leaves other than herself. She told Cyrus that she doesn't want anything bad to come after Will," Giles responded. "I think that, an ancient being or not, her parents are still indestructible heroes to her."
"Fairly," Spike agreed, smiling slightly and standing from his chair. Buffy got up as well and began to move towards him.
"Spike?" Giles asked, before the two had reached each other.
Spike turned his head, acknowledging the Watcher. "Yeah?"
"Would you mind if we had a word in private?"
Spike raised an eyebrow, but saw the seriousness in Giles's countenance. "Right," he agreed, softly, reaching out to Buffy and pulling her in for a quick kiss. "Guess I've got to go entertain daddy dearest."
Buffy slapped his arm playfully. "I'm sure it's nothing. Or at least, nothing more apocalyptic, or he'd have me there too."
Spike nodded. "Be back, Pet. "Another quick kiss to her nose.
"Spike?" Giles called from the front door.
"All right. Keep your pants on."
Spike squeezed Buffy's hand and headed off out the door.
To be contd.