Hooray! Part six, aka the chapter that wouldn't die, is finally here! I'd really love some comments (good or bad) on this bit, peoples. It's twice the length of the other chapters and a lot of work went into it!

Thanks and adoration to my beta readers, Fab and Erica Olson.

Oh, and I now have a livejournal if anyone's interested. It's at . Woohoo!

Blinky the Tree Frog



Disclaimer:
The Buffyverse belongs to Mutant Enemy as far as I'm aware. No money being made, no infringement intended.

Spoilers for Season Seven up to at least Episode 12 (Potential). It's set right after.


Part Six

"Here comes the world
With the look in its eye
Future uncertain but certainly slight
Look at the faces listen to the bells
It's hard to believe we need a place called hell"

Devil Inside -INXS


Tucker stopped not far from Sunnydale High, sat down, closed his eyes, gathered together his demonic senses, and concentrated on scent.

...the pungent odour of several cats...the trash can in the nearby alleyway...several vampires who'd crossed the area last night...several people who'd crossed it today...

"Sir, are you okay?"

Concentration shattered. He opened his eyes and stared up at the worried looking old women, supremely annoyed. "What?"

She blinked owlishly at him from behind thick glasses. "I'm sorry, you just looked like you might be in pain. Do you need a doctor?"

He talked through gritted teeth. "I'm. Jussst. Fine."

"Oh. Well, it's just that you looked a little..."

Oh for god's sake. Did this lady not get hints? He pulled himself to his feet and snarled at her. "I wasss concentrating. Notice I said wasss. Notice that you've completely spoiled my concentration. Notice that you're an annoying old bat who doesssn't know when to ssshut up."

"Well! I was just trying..."

That was it. He pushed his face up to her, very deliberately pulled off the sunglasses and blinked at her menacingly. "Go. Away."

She stared at him in shock, then turned and did the best attempt at a run that she could.

Tucker waited until she was at least twenty metres up the road before aiming carefully, concentrating, and ejecting a paralysing dart into her rear end. Wouldn't want her calling attention to him. Not yet, anyway.

He put back his glasses, and scowled. There didn't seem much point in trying the scent thing again anyway. Stopping at random intervals and sniffing around all morning as he trudged across Sunnydale had so far gotten him just as far as using detective work. No, actually the detective work had been better; at least he had some small idea of what he was doing there. It was fine using enhanced senses generally, but using enhanced senses to sniff out the scent of one particular human was hard.

He supposed he'd better just go to the school. Maybe he could torture someone some of Andrew's old buddies into giving information. Or maybe he could just torture some of Andrew's old buddies. He needed the stress relief.

***************

"Well, I think he may possibly have been here."

Andrew turned away from his survey of the shattered living room and gave his companion a look. "Gosh, you think?"

Dust tried to look serious. "Sorry."

Andrew shrugged and distractedly started to straighten the room up. "Okay, yes, the whole door ripped off its hinges and house torn apart thing does indicate that Tucker was here. Unfortunately, it looks like we've missed him."

Dust helped him pull up an overturned bookcase. "Obviously he decided that he wasn't going to get any help from your Mum. Must've figured out the whole holiday thing."

"Right." Andrew frowned at a mass of wood that might have once been a phone table. "Actually, I think he heard the answering machine message."

"What makes you say that?"

He pointed at the tangle of electronic parts sitting next to the wrecked table. "I think that used to be the answering machine."

"Ouch. Quite the little temper he has there."

"The time trip hasn't made it any better."

Dust righted the couch and sat down on it. "Okay, so we can strike this off the list. I guess we try the next place, right?"

"Unless there's something here that'll give us a clue."

Dust glanced around doubtfully. "Good luck, Watson."

"It was Sherlock who was the detective, Dust." Andrew looked exasperated. "Watson was his student; the one who got everything pointed out to him in the end."

That got a grin. "So I got that reference fairly right then?"

"Remind me why I let you tag along with me again?"

"My scathing wit?"

"Try again." Andrew shuffled through the piles of stuff on the floor.

"To save me from the tedium of ploughing fields in good old Scathck for the rest of my life?"

"Okay I'll give you tha... Aha!"

Dust raised an eyebrow. "You actually found something?"

"Old address book with two pages ripped out. "Andrew smiled triumphantly. "M and L. Wanna take a wild guess why?"

"What... Oh. Mears and Levinson, right?"

"Elementary, my dear Watson."

"Ah, shuddup."

*******************

Tucker carefully walked through Sunnydale High. Schools tended to have a problem with strangers wandering the buildings, so he'd switched on the Tilom demon's camouflage effect and was trying to keep to the shadows as he scouted. Trying was the operative word unfortunately; the wonderful new Sunnydale High had a distressingly low shadow count. The sooner he got out of here, the better.

Right. He was dealing with card gaming geeks. It was study hall in about 15 minutes and card gaming geeks played cards during study hall. They'd probably sequester themselves in one of the two nice study rooms that weren't far from the library. All he had to do was wait, follow them in, and then scare the living hell out of them. Easy. Now he'd better...

He hesitated and stopped. Something was wrong. No, not wrong, something was... malevolent. His senses were prickling and the demon in him snapped at the bit. He frowned and scanned the section of corridor he'd stopped in. What the hell was that? Why on earth did he feel so...

He lost his train of thought as his eyes fixed themselves on a door. It wasn't a particularly remarkable looking door; in fact it looked a lot like every other door in the place. The only slightly notable thing about it was the sign next to it that said 'basement'.

He suddenly had a terrible urge to open it.

************

Andrew was writing a comics want-list. Mexico had been tragically sparse when it came to comic stores, and when he and Jonathan had come back to Sunnydale he'd... had other things on his mind. He was therefore well behind on most of his regular titles; he hoped that the store still had a good range of back issues. And there was also the money situation, he still had a little cash left over from his days as a super villain but it had been running low of late and buying the coat, extremely cool as it was, hadn't helped. Still, Xander was going to buy stuff too. He could read Xander's copies of some comics. Except if they were anniversary issues, of course, because then he'd need a copy of his own to keep in plastic for historical purposes. He'd have to talk to Xander and ask what he was going to buy...

Vi wandered into the room and up to Willow, who was back to researching at the other end of the table. "Clem's gone home, " she announced. "He said he was going to get a few of the other demons to stay over at his place for a few days, safety in numbers."

Willow looked up. "He still could have stayed here if he'd really wanted."

She shrugged. "It was pretty hard to get to sleep last night, what with all the girls talking. And he said he didn't want to be that much of a bother."

"Oh well. I guess it's just going to get more crowded from here on."

Vi nodded and frowned at the other end of the table. "What did you do to Andrew?" she said softly. "He's gone all quiet."

Willow grinned. "You want something from Andrew? Dangle the promise of comic books in front of him. I should have thought of that before."

***************

The seal was large and frankly scary looking. It appeared to be made of carved metal, intricate patterns swirling around the likeness of a horned goat.

Tucker stared at it and wondered what the hell it did, and why the hell he'd been drawn to it.

It was highly magical, that was obvious. The very fact that his demon senses were paging him so urgently showed that. And obviously it wasn't a nice, happy magical object. People rarely carved horned goats in nice happy magical objects. He leant forward and tentatively ran a finger over the surface. God, he could feel it, tingling up his fingers. There was power in this thing. How could he get it out? What did it do?

He walked forward and stood on it hopefully. His feet tingled slightly but otherwise, no go. Standing on it didn't activate it. So what did? He stamped on it. Some kind of spell, perhaps? Doing a dance? Hitting it with a mystical object? He knelt down and ran his hands over the carving, hoping to trigger something. When that didn't work either he punched it in frustration.

Great. He had found the whereabouts of a powerful magical object, only to be unable to figure out how to do anything with it. That was just so completely and utterly typical of his life lately. Tucker glared at the stubborn thing and did some thinking.

Okay, the seal was a nice bonus for him to play with after he'd killed Andrew, but he didn't actually need to figure it out right away. He could come back to it. No problem. And maybe he could come back with a hostage who could tell him all about it. Like Buffy Summers; she seemed to know about all the weird-ass stuff that happened in Sunnydale. Not that he'd grab Buffy herself, that'd be a little difficult. Her friends though, they wouldn't be too hard to get by surprise when she wasn't around. They were probably the brains of the outfit anyway. Of course, they still might not actually know about the seal... wait a second...

He closed his eyes and concentrated again. Stupid idiot, he'd almost forgotten about that. It'd be easy to tell whether Buffy and co. knew about the seal. All he had to do was find their scents near it and that was proof positive. Must be the frustration; it was really getting to him. Now let's see...

...rats, rats, and more rats...a pig (the hell?)...old blood, mingling with the dirt and dust...an unknown human...Andrew...Buffy... what!?

His eyes flew open. Andrew! Andrew had been here! Finally, he was getting somewhere! God, of all the places for his idiot brother to have been!

Eyes closed again, he sat down and focussed on Andrew's scent. It wasn't terribly strong, and had to be at least a few days old. Still, if he could just find enough of a trail to follow...

After a few minutes of stumbling through the basement he cursed under his breath. It was just no use. He knew Andrew had been here, could catch faint whiffs of his scent all around. But the trail kept fading in and out and getting overridden by stronger, more recent odours. Damn. He stopped and bit his lip. Well, he knew Andrew had been here. That meant the geeky card players would have to know where he was, right? And another bonus: Andrew might know something about the seal that Tucker could squeeze out of him before he died. All was not lost.

He jumped slightly as the school bell echoed faintly above him.

Good. Just in time.

*****************

"...don't know what you think you're doing, but it's not scaring me. And in fact, it's actually just irritating people, some of who are definitely not the type of people you should be irritating. I'm just warning you, is all..."

Andrew listened to his younger self fume into the phone for a few seconds more and then carefully put it down and pulled himself out of the booth. "He's still there."

Dust pulled himself up from where he'd been sitting on the nearby stone fence and nodded. "Cool. So, the Mears place next?"

"Well, he wasn't at Jonath... the Levinson's old block, so yeah, I guess."

"Bus or Taxi?"

"It's not far from here, we can walk."

Dust kicked rocks down the pavement as they went. "This is getting kind of ridiculous. It's like we're just one step behind him."

"I guess we should hurry then."

"Maybe we should go back Buffy's house and wait there. I mean he is bound to find it sooner or later, isn't he?"

Andrew glanced over. "You were all for this a while ago."

"Just call me fickle. And also worried."

"We really shouldn't risk Buffy finding out about us if we can possibly avoid it."

"But can we avoid it? And how do we know it'll even do any harm?"

"Dust, I don't know, okay? Let's...let's just keep on with this for now. We'll go to the Mears', and then the school. If we still haven't found him then...we'll review. Okay?"

"Okay." Dust nodded and picked up the pace. Nevertheless, he couldn't quite shake the feeling that something was going to go terribly wrong.

*************

"...T...Tucker? Tucker Wells? Andrew's brother? Oh my god, what happened to you?" Jamie Stanford stared at the figure that was perched on the end of the Sunnydale Card Gaming Society's table and tried to take another step backwards. Unfortunately, the back wall was refusing to let him.

Tucker smiled, and it wasn't a nice smile. "I'm feeling fine. And you?"

Jamie glanced to the side, where Mike and Lee were also pressed against the wall, not looking as though they wanted to answer any time soon. Great, they were leaving it up to him to fend off the crazy person. Thanks a lot, guys.

"Ummm... well, we've been fine. I mean nice. So...nice...nice eyes you've got there." He cringed.

"They're very cool, aren't they?"

"And, and... the claws..."

"Very ssstylisssh, I think."

"Right." There was an awkward pause. Then, "Pleasedon'tkillus!"

Tucker smiled wider. "I not going to kill you..."

"Oh thank god."

"...if I get the information I want."

"Uh...yay?"

"Where'sss Andrew?"

Jamie stared at him, petrified. "A...Andrew?"

"Andrew. My brother. Idiot. Geek. Guy who usssed to play cardsss with you all-the-fucking-time! I know he'sss been at the ssschool. Where isss he living?"

"I don't know!"

A claw flicked down and neatly speared Mike's Fourth edition Serra Angel. There was a collective gasp.

"Wrong anssswer."

Mike finally squeaked up from Jamie's right. "We really don't know! Honest! None of us have seen Andrew for like, a year! He disappeared a while ago..."

"I saw him."

Tucker raised an eyebrow and turned to Lee, who was looking as though he vastly regretted opening his mouth.

"Yesss?"

"A couple of weeks back. He...I was walking down Revello Drive and he was going down the street. It...it looked like Willow Rosenberg was dragging him. I remember I thought it was weird...I waved, but I don't think he saw... And then I was walking by three days ago and he was in the Summers' front yard, putting the bins out. I...I think he might be staying there." Lee shrank back against the wall as the expression on Tucker's face darkened.

"I. Don't. Believe. It!" He spat the words out, looking uttering infuriated. "He'sss with her?! All the time I've been walking acrossss the whole fucking town and he'sss with her?!"

Jamie nodded like a puppet on a string. "Umm... yes? Please don't kill us now?"

Tucker stared at then, furious. "I'm not going to kill you."

"Thankyouthankyou!"

"But I am going to beat the living crap out of you."

They looked horrified. "What? Why?"

Tucker smiled again. "Because I just don't like you very much."

**************

There was an ambulance parked outside the school when they arrived, fresh from a fruitless expedition to the Mears house. Andrew suspected that this didn't bode well.

He and Dust slipped in fairly easily amongst the curious crowds of students and general community members; people always loved a good tragedy. From the general gossip they deduced that a mysterious assailant had beaten three members of the Sunnydale Card Gaming Society to within an inch of their lives. This, decided Andrew, definitely didn't bode well.

"I used to play Magic with those guys", he explained to his companion as they stood off to the side and attempted to look as though they were supposed to be there.

"I thought you didn't know any magic back then?"

"What? Oh. No. It's a card game. Magic: The Gathering?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about, but go on."

"Tucker must have been trying to get them to tell him where I am."

"Do they know?"

"Well no, they don't. Not as far as I know, anyway. But it means he's here, and he's close. I wonder if anyone saw which way he ran off?"

"We could ask around." Dust started. "Oh! Isn't that...?"

Andrew pulled him behind a nearby wall. "It's Buffy. I told you she worked here. We'll just have to make sure we stay away from her."

Dust looked slightly worried. "Well, that's going to make things difficult."

"Not if we're quick." He snuck a glance around the wall and then stripped off his rucksack. "Here, hold this."

"What are you going to do?"

"Get some answers, hopefully. Or, y'know, totally screw things up."

"I'm pulling for the answers solution myself. Want I should keep a lookout for her Slayerness?"

"Please do." Andrew pulled a pen and paper from his pocket, straightened himself up and walked to a female student who stood on the fringes of the crowd, just out of sight of Buffy. "Hello, miss! I'm from the press, would you like to give a statement on what you saw?"

The student turned around and doubtfully looked at his old jeans and faded shirt. "You're a reporter?"

He didn't hesitate. "Certainly, Miss. I'm a reporter for 'Sunnydale Strangeness', a magazine that reports on the more... unusual events that happen in this fair town."

She looked slightly more convinced. After all, reporters for magazines with names like that were bound to be a bit eccentrically dressed. And he did look sincere. "Oh. Umm... What do you want to know?"

He gave her a dazzling smile. "I just heard that this case might have some unusual aspects to it. Wondered whether you could tell me anything about the perpetrator."

She frowned at him uncertainly. "Well... look, you aren't going to put my name on this, are you? I don't want people to think I'm a weirdo."

"Your anonymity is assured."

"Huh?"

He rephrased. "No names if that's what you want."

"Oh. Well..." She bit her lip. "Well, I did see something, but it was pretty weird and I'm not sure that it's even connected."

"Weird is what we do, Miss." He looked at her encouragingly.

"Umm, okay. I think I saw the person who might have done it. I... I got out of class early and I was walking down the corridor when he came out of the basement and started walking towards the rooms that those people got attacked in. He was really odd looking... I mean, he had a big coat and dark glasses, like he was trying to cover something up. And then he saw me looking at him and he looked surprised, like he'd forgotten something important, and then he just... disappeared. Only it wasn't really disappearing, you know? He didn't do it completely, it was more like he just... faded into the background and you could still see him if you looked hard. I know it sounds unbelievable, but it really happened!"

She stopped, suddenly realising that the reporter hadn't written down a word of what she'd said, and was in fact looking at her with an expression of horror. "Uh, hello?"

"He came out of the basement?"

"Uh, yeah. Look, do you want me to repeat..."

He suddenly seemed to pull himself together. "No, that won't be necessary. Thanks for your help, I think I've got everything I need."

"You haven't even written anything down!"

He started to walk away. "No need. Photographic memory! Thanks!"

"What? But that's..."

Andrew disappeared around the side of the building, grabbed his rucksack off Dust, and started to walk away.

Dust looked at him questioningly. "What's wrong?"

"He's been in the basement. He knows about the Seal of Danzalthar."

Dust stared at him in horror. "What?!"

"You heard me! We need to find him now, before he figures out how to open it!"

"He knows about the Seal? Are you sure? I mean he might have just been... wandering around. In the basement."

"Dust, his body's swimming with demonic essence. If he was down there he's got to have sensed its power. We got to... Damn!" He stopped abruptly and looked even more horrified.

"What now?"

"I've been down there."

Dust looked confused. "What?"

"I've been down at the Seal." He turned to look at Dust. "If Tucker's been near it he might have picked up my scent."

Dust looked severely dismayed. "It's got to have been pretty old though, right? He might not have been able to follow the trail..."

"We've got to get back to the Summers'. Now."

"Hang on!"

"What!?" Andrew stopped as Dust grabbed his arm. "We've got to hurry!"

"Ring. We should ring up. To make sure that Andrew's...that you're still there. We're safe if he's there, right?"

Andrew deflated somewhat. "Right. Sorry. We should ring."

************

"Okay, so you need groceries, a new mouse..."

"Doesn't have to be fancy, just as long as it works..."

"And you want me to take Andrew to the comic shop because he's been irritating you about it all day..."

Willow beamed at him playfully. "You're a real pal, Xander."

He gave her a look of mock disgust. "That's me. Good old pally Xander. You know I'm only doing this because you asked really nicely, right?"

"Definitely. And I'm going to say absolutely nothing if you just happen to find a few choice bits of comicy goodness that you feel compelled to purchase."

"That's what I like about you, Willow. You're always so happy to cover for my secret shames."

She grinned at him. "You better get going. Andrew's list of comics is going to start on its seventh page in about two minutes."

"Oh goody." He shook his head in exasperation and walked out.

Willow yawned and stretched. She really needed to have a walk around; she'd been researching nearly all day. Maybe...maybe Kennedy would be finished with her training. They could...

The phone rang, and she sighed and grabbed it.

"Hello?"

Silence.

"Anyone there?"

Willow scowled faintly and put down the phone. This prank caller was just getting irritating. Maybe she could find some hex to put on the phone...

No. No magic. It was a little problem, and there was no need to go that far.

*******************

Andrew slammed down the phone and gave Dust a worried look. "It was Willow."

"Crap!"

"We've got to get back there. I've got a bad feeling about this."

"You might not be out of the house though. It might just be that Willow was near the phone, right?"

"Or it might be that I'm halfway to the store and Tucker's two seconds away from gutting me!"

"Double crap. Well... let's get a taxi then. Or a bus? Is there a bus going past? Andrew?"

Andrew stopped abruptly and shook his head. "Too long. It's going to take too long and even when we get there we won't know whether I'm in the house because we can't go in there and risk someone seeing us!" He turned, walked into the nearest alley, and sat down. "I've got a better idea."

Dust hurried after him, alarmed. "What? Andrew?"

Andrew sat down and rummaged in his pack. "I'm going to summon an Accipiofeles and do an alienatio incantation."

"What! Not again! I hate it when you do that!"

"Do you have a better idea?! Accipiofeles are quick and small; if I do the incantation and transfer my senses I can get to the house, search it to see if I'm there, and then go and find me if I'm not, without anyone seeing me."

"While I sit here nurse-maiding your drooling body. Do you know how creepy that is, Andrew? You're barely breathing; it's like sitting next to a living corpse. And I keep thinking that one day your senses are going to get trapped in the stupid demon or worse, you're going to die while you're in it and I'll be stuck with Mr Comatose forever!"

"Dust!" His expression brooked no argument. "I'm summoning the Accipiofeles now. It'll take about 2 minutes. Call Willow. Talk to her and see if you can get her to tell you where I am without telling her who you are. If you can, great. If you can't, I'm going to do the incantation. Okay?"

He nodded miserably. "Alright."

*************

"Hello?"

"Hello, could I please speak to Andrew?"

"He's... hey! How do you know Andrew's living here?"

The voice on the other end hissed what sounded suspiciously like a curse. "I... I saw him outside the other day. I'm a friend."

Willow was sceptical. "Right. You wouldn't happen to know anything about a whole bunch of prank phone calls we've been having, would you?"

"I don't know what you're talking about. Look, I really need to talk to Andrew. Is he there? It's vitally important!"

"Vitally important? Who are you?"

"I'm... Look, I can't tell you. But I need to know where Andrew is at the moment. Please, you've got to help me..."

"But you can't give me any details."

"I'm sorry. I know this sounds weird but I swear I'm a good guy. I just need to know where Andrew is."

"And I need to have a bit of information before I start giving facts like that out to random strangers on the phone!"

"This is important! You have no idea how important this is!"

"You keep saying that! If it's that important take two seconds and give me an explanation!"

This time the sound on the other end was most definitely a curse. The mysterious caller hung up.

*************

When Dust came back from the phone booth Andrew sat cross legged in the middle of the alleyway with a five inch Accipiofeles sitting in the palm of his hand. He looked at Dust questioningly.

Dust gritted his teeth and nodded, and Andrew began to whisper in Latin.

*************

Xander pulled into the shopping complex and glanced over at his companion, who was staring out of the car window with the eager look of an excited puppy. He sighed. "Okay, the Electronics store is nearer, so we're going to get Willow's mouse first."

Andrew turned to him. "I could go ahead and meet you at the comics shop."

"Two syllables, Andrew. Hos-tage." He parked the car and began unbuckling his belt.

Andrew sulked. "I wouldn't try to get away. I keep telling people I'm good now."

"I almost believe you about the not trying to get away thing, but I'm not going to risk it, okay? This should only take a few minutes anyway."

A roll of the eyes. "Okaaay."

Andrew frowned and scanned the car park as they pulled themselves out of the car. Xander flicked him a look. "What's wrong?"

He managed a nervous smile. "Oh, it's nothing. I just got this weird feeling that someone was watching me."

************

You have no idea how important this is!

Willow sat at the kitchen table and pondered. Maybe she should have said something. The strange caller had seemed genuinely worried; maybe there was a legitimate reason he couldn't provide details...

"Hey, you're looking particularly grim today!"

She jumped, and then blushed. "Hi Kennedy."

Kennedy grinned at her. "Hi Willow." She sat down with a look of determination. "So, what's bothering you?"

Willow looked a little embarrassed. "It's nothing really. I just had a weird phone call... what was that!?"

Kennedy started as Willow jumped up and stared fixedly at a spot behind her. She turned around. "I don't see anything."

Willow shook her head slightly and grimaced. "Sorry. It was small, probably just a mouse or something. I gotta stop feeling so jumpy."

"Oh?" Kennedy turned back and reinstated her grin. "Am I making you jumpy?"

Willow flushed again. "Not...not jumpy as such..."

Her grin got wider. "You know we're practically alone in the house? Spike's literally dead to the world, Clem's gone home. Vi, and Rona and Molly have gone down to the corner store with Anya. Andrew and Xander... actually I'm not too sure where they went..."

"Comics Kingdom. But don't let Xander know I told you."

"Right, sure. The point is, we're here, and everyone else is mostly gone...God, what was that!"

Both her and Willow jumped up as a small green scaly creature made a huge leap from the top of the cupboard, ran across the table, skidded through the lounge room, and slithered under the front door and away before they could raise a hand.

There was a brief, stunned silence, then Kennedy said. "Y'know, I don't think that was a mouse."

************

Comics Kingdom. This is the day that Xander took me to the comics store. I can't believe I didn't remember that! Stupid, stupid...

Andrew/The Accipiofeles sprinted away from the Summers' and towards the shopping complex.

************

Dust sat with his back against the cold alley and watched Andrew's unoccupied body. He hated the alienatio incantation; had hated it ever since Andrew had mastered it two years ago. There was something horribly eerie about leaving your body a blank, staring heap while you stuck your senses into a minor demon. It was just wrong. It scared the living heck out of him and he couldn't fathom how Andrew could be so casual about using it.

He bit his lip. Something terrible was going to happen. Something was going to go horribly wrong. He could feel it in the air, and the tension was killing him.

Andrew's body stared vacantly at him and he looked back helplessly. "Please." He said softly. "Please don't screw this up. Please don't let anything appalling happen."

He wasn't sure who he was talking to, but it made him feel better to say it.

**************

Andrew/The Accipiofeles turned the corner of the electronic store that sat on the edge of the shopping complex and nearly collided with himself.

Whoa! He twisted around and hurled himself into the nearest stormwater drain, then peeked out with an overwhelming sense of relief.

Andrew from the present was standing on the kerb outside of the store, browsing through a catalogue. Further examination showed that he was waiting for Xander to finish at the register just inside the store.

Buying Willow a mouse. He remembered that now. Stupid memory.

He was still alive though! Nothing had happened! Everything was... was...

No. Oh no.

There was a man a few stores over from Andrew's right. A man with dark sunglasses and a coat. A man who was smiling, and walking towards Andrew with a look that was layered with malicious triumph.

No!

*********

"No!" His concentration shattered and Andrew's senses crashed back into his body. Dust jumped at the shout.

"What? What's wrong?!"

"Tucker's there! Right now! Right at this very second!"

Something has gone horribly wrong. Dust stared at him in panic. "What?! Where is he? What do we do?"

"The electronics shop at the corner of the shopping complex. The one I pointed out to you earlier. We've... we've got to get there..." Andrew jumped up and started running to the alley entrance, Dust on his heels.

Then he stopped. "No. That's not going to work. We've got to..." He stared wildly at his companion, and Dust could almost see the cogs turning. "We can't protect him and we can't protect Xander. Not like this." And then his face snapped into focus, decision made. "I've got an idea."

He stumbled back into the alley, sat down, and started pulling things from the rucksack. "I'm going to summon something. It won't be strong enough to kill him, but it will distract Tucker for long enough for people to get away." He looked up at Dust. "They're at the electronics store. Xander and me and him. It's not far, turn right at the alley mouth, go 'till you get to the police station, then turn and keep going. You can probably run it. Grab a taxi if you see one, or a bus. You've got to get there, Dust. You've got to distract him until I can summon this thing and then you've got to get them back to the house."

Dust stared at him as though he was mad. "You're going to summon a demon to fight him off? Andrew, we already tried that! He eats demons! You're just going to make him more powerful!"

But Andrew was already shaking his head as he unloaded ingredients. "Not this one. He won't be able to eat this one."

Now Dust was confused. "I thought you said the only demons immune to him took hours to summon!"

"This one doesn't. Dust, go!"

"What do you mean, this one doesn't?" Alarmed, he bent down and grabbed Andrew's arm. "Andrew, what are you going to do?!"

Andrew's head snapped up and he almost shouted. "Dust, it doesn't matter! Think about this! Think about what's at stake here. It's not just me that Tucker's going to kill, it's Xander too! Xander's there. And do you know how badly that's going to screw with time? Do you know what this could do?"

He grabbed his companion by the collar and hauled him down face to face, stared into his eyes with all the urgency he could muster.

"Dust. Run."

Dust stared at him in horror.

Dust ran.

***********

And at the store, Tucker Wells walked up to his prey and waited.

Andrew looked up vaguely, and then did a double take. "Tucker?! What are you doing here? What happened to you?"

Tucker smiled. "Hello little brother."

***************