Julian was about to mock Buffy and Anya about the rabbits more when the doorbell rang. Having no clue what was about to happen he snapped his fingers and the rabbits all vanished. Buffy and Anya stared at him awkwardly. They were as stunned as he was. The door out of the room appeared, and julian went through it. Buffy and Anya followed. Xander was coming down the stairs and ran into them.

"Xander?" Anya asked. "Where you in the turret?"

"Yes, but it isn't like I could have gotten out, the snake and wolf thing from hell were blocking the door. I knew it wouldn't be that easy to get out. Did I hear a door bell?"

Julian looked back at him. "The Creeper and The Lurker were playing by the rules. Buffy had to be with you for you to get out the door."

He then went down to the second floor, and onto the first floor, to the front door. Before he could open it, they heard a girl's voice scream "Buffy!"

"Dawn!" Buffy cried out. "Julian, open the door! I thought she was in my house when you expelled her from the game, not outside the game in hell!"

"She was back in your house. She must have discovered a way into Niflheim, which means she mastered runes. Impressive." He opened the door.

Dawn was being pulled away by deformed dwarfs. At least that is what Buffy saw when they all ran out the house. Before she could burst into action, she was startled by the command in Julian's voice when he yelled after them. "Let the child go! Give me the child!" Buffy couldn't help but chuckle at the fact that he just practically quoted Labyrinth.

Dawn cried out "I'm not a child!"

The Elder Shadow Men turned and faced them. They looked like parts of ugly animals had been molded together and formed into little men. Julian's related to these guys? Yikes.

One Shadow Man, he looked part crocodile, said "The child entered our world of her own accord and is therefore ours.

"I'm not a child!"

"No." Julian said. "She was a player in a game I was playing. Therefore she is mine until the game is over."

The crocodile Shadow man laughed. "We'll see about that young one. You have brought the Slayer into our world, even though she does not have the resources to kill us, it was mighty thoughtless of you. If she can take the child back from us--"

"I'm not a child!"

"--And make it back to the house your game is taking place in, then you may have her. I highly doubt that she can do such a thing. Slayers are nothing but scary bedtime stories for vampires."

Anya whispered to Buffy, "See, they love gambles."

"Yeah well, you haven't met Faith." Buffy said to the Elders, ignoring Anya. "She's a living nightmare at times. I will take my sister back from you." Buffy took the nearest Shadow Man by surprise when she kicked it into the air. After that, it was difficult to make contact with them. The little suckers were fast. They tripped her up a couple of times, and one even pulled her hair out of spite. It cackled until she reached out and swatted it about ten feet from her.

Buffy looked and say Anya and Xander fending off the midget Shadow Men, and Julian taking Dawn from the hands of her captures. The advantages of being the only tall member of an entire race.

And before she could call out anything to him everything went black.