After a little bit of walking they ran into Anya.

"Where have you been? I've been wandering up and down this hallway for hours. My feet hurt, and I can't teleport." Anya complained.

"Sorry Anya, we were busy with the nightmare facing and the demon talking to." Xander said.

"Ooh. You talked to the tricky, but sexy demon? What did he say?"

Buffy filled her in on how she was the key player and how Julian claims to be in love with her and all that great stuff. Anya listened intently before saying, "Oh, it's just not fair. You get all the hot demons: Angel, Spike, Dracula, and now Julian."

"Hey, I didn't mean to." Buffy said.

"And it's not only that. He tricked me into buying this stupid game and now I'm gonna be trapped here forever, and literally forever because I'm immortal. He took my money through seduction of the eyes and the lure of information. I should have known better since he's a demon and I'm a demon. Do you think that if you were to ­ let's say, die ­ he might be interested in me?" Anya smiled.

Buffy stared at her blankly before responding with, "Ok, so not the issue."

The clock struck one.

"Holy crap! Time moves too fast here, we aren't gonna be old and wrinkly like the people in the other Hell dimension you went to were, are we?" Xander said, panicked.

Anya answered. "No, time here only works about two or three hours faster; I'm not too sure on the exact length."

"Okay, so we are going to be like a day or two older when we get back? That really screws up the whole birthday issue, doesn't it?" Buffy asked.

"Yeah, well it's your fault. If you didn't have to be all 'lit up' or whatever when we were trying to help Willow we wouldn't be in this mess." Anya said under her breath.

Xander took up for Buffy. "Yeah well, it isn't her fault. It isn't even really Willow's fault. If there is anyone to blame it is Warren. If Warren hadn't of tried to be super villainy in the first place and try to shoot Buffy, Tara wouldn't have caught that stray bullet and she would still be here and Willow wouldn't be in England undergoing heavy rehabilitation. So Anya, if you really want to blame anyone, blame Warren - or blame yourself for being tricked into making us play a game because the guy selling it had platinum-blonde hair, blue eyes, wore all black, and had the lean-well muscled body. That sounds like somebody else we know, who could it be? Spike, maybe."

Anya rolled her eyes. "Xander, you never take my side. Secondly, when I had sex with Spike it was because he was there, I was hurting, and I was really drunk - and believe it or not, he was going through the same thing I was, only I didn't completely lose it and try to rape you a few days later. But do you know what they say about Shadow Men?"

"What do they say?" Buffy asked.

"They are born, well not really born - made is a more appropriate term - into perfection. Of course perfection isn't good or evil, it is neutral, therefore when I say perfection it is probably a physical thing. They are heartbreakingly beautiful and physically perfect. No woman, or gay man, could possibly resist that hunk of masculine demon. Buffy, I don't know what is keeping you from succoming to him, but if he really is determined to get you, it will become more and more difficult to resist."

"Oh rub the perfection thing in my face, am I supposed to be jealous now?" Xander asked.

Buffy and Anya ignored this.

Buffy listened to Anya as they walked down the long, long hallway. She couldn't deny any of what was being said. It was harder to resist him everytime. Maybe if she wasn't so stubborn she would have already surrendered. He did try to make her kiss him. He could touch her hand and her hair, what would happen if he could kiss her or wrap his hands around her.

"Anya, is there any way to kill Shadow Men that you know of? You mentioned before that they were made but not born."

Anya smiled at the thought of being useful. "Well, Shadow Men use runes, remember. Runes are the rules, the laws, and the boundaries. Runes are used to keep them inside Niflheim, and runes are use to create Shadow Men. A Shadow Man is created when their name is carved into a magical rune stave: The Stave Of Life. If their name is carved out, the Shadow Man no longer exists. He will simply fade away into nothing. There is no heaven or hell to which the Shadow Men go to, they just cease to exist."

"Well, that's just crappy." Xander said. The two girls gave him a look. "What? If we carve this guy's name out of this stave, considering Julian lets us anywhere near it, then this guy risks everything for a girl and gets the ultimate shoot down."

"Oh, kind of like when Buffy stabbed Angel and sent him to hell, except for Julian can't come back like Angel did?" Anya said.

"You always did have a well-expanded, but scary mind." Xander said.

"Wait, Angel turned evil, tried to destroy the world, and I was doing my job. Julian tricked all of us, is playing dumb little mind games with us, and is living a complete illusion, literally. Besides, I loved Angel, I don't love Julian."

"Are you sure?" Xander asked. There was something odd about his tone.

Anya even had to glance at him, although she thought it was a fairly good question. "Yeah, do you know for sure that you feel absolutely nothing for this guy. I mean, you despised Spike, but you still snuck around boinking him left and right and led him on to the point that he lost it."

"Anya, please don't try to figure me out ever again." Buffy said flattly.

"Ooh. Stairs." Xander sounded excited.

Buffy looked ahead and saw them. "Dawn is probably right up there, scared to death."

"Or maybe she is just annoyed that it is taking us so long to find her." Xander said.

As the three came close upon the stairs the ceiling caved in.