"Oh Jesus, help me!" The three-eyed things didn't respond to the name of Jesus except to turn toward her.

They didn't respond to the cross or the Bible either, held in Paul Maclay's hands. "I rebuke you in Jesus' name," her uncle shouted.

"More must rise," was the demons' only response as they seized him by the arms. Cousin Donnie's shovel to the head was more effective than prayer had been, but in moments the cluster of monsters had him restrained just as surely. The one he'd hit rose slowly, wobbling on its feet, but it rose.

"Get the girl," another of the demons said, pointing at her. "More must rise." Beth Maclay shrieked and dashed away to lock herself in the nearest room.

That proved to be a mistake. The only possible exit was out a third-story window. Worse...worse, it was her aunt's old room. She could feel the demonic forces hanging heavily about it like a thick fog. If anything she was in more danger here.

With the strength of adrenaline and faith in God she shoved the bed against the door. That might hold them for a little while.

Something had fallen from beneath the mattress. With shaking hands she picked it up. The book was her aunt's old journal. A "book of shadows", Tara had called it once, somehow not seeing the evil that name revealed. It fell open to a page marked "for warding malicious creatures".

No. She might have the bad luck to be born from the Maclays' tainted seed, and it might even make her able to wield those foul powers, but it was better to let the demons eat her than to give herself over to Satan. She let the book fall.

"Gyaahh!" That was her uncle screaming as the monsters implanted their dark spawn into the back of his head. She could...she might still be able to save him, to save cousin Donnie. The book mocked her, drawing her gaze back to it. No. Uncle Paul would tell her to be strong and trust in Jesus, not in the devil's arts. She picked up the journal and flung it out the window, pages scattering to the winds.

"Beth Maclay." She turned from the window. A handsome man-she thought it was a man; he was slender and beardless-regarded her, his feet moving soundlessly over the floor in an intricate pattern. "Your faith is great, though it seems to avail you nought." For the briefest of moments, she saw no form at all-only a column of silver flame, and her eyes went wide. "I come to reward your faith." The man-the angel!-held out his arms to Beth Maclay, and she took them gratefully.

"Save me," she begged. "Save my family."

"Their faith was not sufficient," it said. Before she could respond, the flames engulfed her. And then she knew only pain.

Chapter 59-No Handlebars

Drusilla giggled.

"And she calls that righteousness," Lilah said disgustedly. "Reminds me why I don't bother with the concept."

"There is a seed of virtue in it," Five Days' Darkness said calmly, "just as there is in your disgust with her, and with hypocrisy in general. It might grow or it might not. The Infernal Exaltations will not take root in those who rise to the occasion, only in those who fall. Not that I would tell her that just yet."

"Why didn't you three give me access to the Loom to begin with?" Lilah traced a hand through the glimmering display. "Do you have any idea how much time I've wasted flailing about?"

"Simple," D'Hoffryn said. "We didn't trust you. We still don't, not fully. But Drusilla can repair any damage you might do-to the Tapestry, not to the Loom itself, which is still beyond you-and we believe we can entice her to."

Lilah responded to that with a simple glance at the giggling Sidereal and an arched eyebrow.

"Exaltations go to those who will use them," Mara said patiently. "And Sidereal ones to those who are destined to have them. There is a reason it belongs to Drusilla, and we must trust that destiny will lead her to it."

Lilah spread her hands. "You'd better be right."

"Why now?" Amy groaned. "I'm compiling it into the petition, but why not while the election was still going on?"

"Because Wolfram & Hart have their tentacles all over society like a bad Werewolf: the Apocalypse villain?" Harmony pointed out from the next computer. "Alabama: Lilah promises to end marijuana legalization. Oregon: she promises to push it forward."

"Petition," Amy sighed. "We're sending it to the Supreme Court and to the Electoral College, right?"

Faith bent over her shoulder. "Not that I'm complainin', but why is voting so complicated?"

"Because a bunch of old white men didn't trust us to make our own decisions," Harmony muttered.

"Voter turnout sparse in Cleveland due to unexplained deaths?" the Buffybot asked. She was a surprisingly good hacker, but frequently unsure what things meant.

"Put it in," Amy said reluctantly. "There's a hellmouth there but I'd feel better if we could prove demons were involved."

"Maybe the old white men were right," Kate said from the back of the room. Her knuckles were white with the strain of not punching anything. "At least where the Exalted are concerned."

Harmony shook her head. "Smaller groups. Lilah could, like, just walk into the EC and brainwash them all if it looked like she needed to. And even with a ton of disinform out there, I'm still seeing, like, thirty-five percent Republicans at the polls. Scattered, mostly rural, maybe not the peeps we want on our side...but she didn't fool everyone."

"She could probably have won just about anywhere," Amy summarized, "and the weird voting system didn't help. Hard to say if it hurt, but it didn't help."

Faith grunted. "Never wished so much we had a king still."

"Nuh-uh," Harmony said, "easy to just kill, even for a Fiend. Democracy isn't much of a safeguard but it's something."

"Maybe the power structure's why she ran as a Democrat to begin with," Amy suggested. "The Republican machine may be better, but not only are they smaller, they're harder for us to work with." She leaned back and gave Faith a smooch. "Case in point."

"Case in point," Faith said with a smirk.

"I can do what you cannot," Daniel Holtz said patiently. "I can walk out of this place and blend with the mortals. I can carry our opposition to Lilah Morgan where it can take root and do some good."

Ralacken-or its heart, Herald of the Black Engine-paused to consider this, its only concession to sound the endless wheezing of bellows and thrumming of pumps. "I have agents and allies already whom you have not met. You could do me more good diverting the attention of her other enemies, whom you have already antagonized anyway. The truth is...I do not need you. Let alone your little misbegottens whom you have dragged down here with you."

Predictably, the older of the air-masked mortals began to tap Holtz on the shoulder and suggest leaving. Just as predictably, Holtz showed no sign of interest. "I have made deals with one devil to oppose another before, Justine. Trust that I will come out on top."

"I trust you on that, Papa," said the younger of the two. "I'm just not sure you're accounting for the consequences to the rest of us."

The Herald began to laugh, racking its ancient form with coughs, though the humans seemed not to recognize the emotion. "It is a failing among those who account themselves righteous, little one."

Holtz did not seem to understand the situation he had gotten himself into. "If you do not need my assistance, Ralacken, I can always simply leave."

The Herald laughed harder. "I do not believe you can. Take him to the present we were given, my people." The horde of gremlins that had lain hidden sprang from the walls to seize him. Holtz struggled, of course, until one of his minions put a knife to Sarah's throat. "Love. Always that weakness. Put them in the cells. And place him in the Monstrance."

Kate unlocked her jaw from the M'Fashnik demon's throat, leaving it lying savaged on the floor of the Democratic Party headquarters, and felt her bones and muscles began to pop back into place as she forced the bear back inside. Terrified functionaries huddling against the walls slowly recovered their wits as they realized who she was.

"This is what you're dealing with," Kate said harshly. "The woman you're elevating to the highest office in the country works with these things, these demons. They're not going to negotiate with you or peacefully coexist with you. All they want us to do is die."

A young intern overcame his fear enough to come prod the demon's body. Had it been cheating to lure the demon here? It would have attacked someone somewhere.

"It's probably too late to change the election," Kate said more quietly. "But you don't have to treat her like one of you. You don't have to work with her. She's a caricature of a Democrat, a rogue lawyer who opens up the jails and shoves violent criminals back out onto the streets. I know that's not what you're really about, so show the rest of the country."

Kate turned to go, feeling the energy boil out of her. She was just undoing what Lilah had done. It wasn't the same at all.

Justine waited just till they were out of Daniel's sight. She couldn't force him to worry about them; he had to focus on himself in this place. Then she caught Sarah's eye and shot a glance at a critical-looking pair of tubes in the neck of the robot-thing holding the younger woman. Together they reached up quick and yanked the things free, spraying oil or coolant or blood or something in all directions. The gremlins didn't just collapse, but they weakened and sagged, and in that moment each of them slammed fists into their captors' faces. That laid them out.

Now it was a matter of disabling the weaker ones and avoiding the tough ones. Justine yoinked a buzzsaw thing from the nearest gremlin's belt-holster, cut it on with a hissing whine, and severed the cyborg's head. Sarah blinked at her.

Justine shrugged. "First rule of cyborg fighting: chainsaw good."

"I really shouldn't be-" Riley began.

Harmony halted him with a finger on his lips. "You're not," she said, hips locked to his. "I'm, like, totally doing all the work here."

"I'm not supposed to-"

"Then why'd you say yes? I need the stress relief, you sure as hell need the stress relief...Ooh! Stress relief yay!"

"Harmony," Riley said, trying with extreme patience and difficulty to be rational, "I don't know that it's a good idea to get you pregnant."

"Been taking my pills," she said tolerantly. "I've been trying not to jump out of my skin around you since we met, much less since you Exalted. And it's not like you and Sam're being exclusive anymore...is it?"

Riley's hands clamped down on her wrists. "I've been sleeping with the other Dragon-Blooded women...because they need it. I'm not...convinced you do. I'm not sure I can stop myself right...now...but this is the last...time. Got...it?"

Harmony muttered under her breath, "Where is this Lunar mate I'm s'posed to have, anyway?" Then she added, "We can stop if you want. I'm not trying to-"

"Let's just finish up," Riley panted. "There's nothing...wrong with your...technique."

"Jesus Christ," Justine snarled, prompting a hard look from Sarah. Their gremlin captors had been tough and brutal, but clearly Ralacken's prime warriors had been reserved for Daniel. "I don't think a rocket launcher could blow that thing." They were concealed on a narrow ledge above a biomechanical ravine leading to that monstrosity the Gremlin City had called a "monstrance"

Now that the immediate threat to Sarah was out of sight-Justine reluctantly accepted she didn't rate quite so high-Daniel was fighting tooth and nail to avoid being forced into that horrific cage. Mere numbers had no chance of overwhelming him, but those armored gremlins and demon-things were giving him difficulties, and Justine feared that if it went on too long, the Gremlin City itself would take a hand.

"Then we have to stop them from getting him into it," Sarah said grimly. Justine could see she had accepted failure already. She had spent half her childhood in the Quor'toth; she knew that there were some foes no mortal could defeat. But they might be able to give Daniel a better chance of escaping.

"Why leave the doors open?" Justine wondered, as Daniel slammed one of the machine-creatures into the thing. A pair of monsters yanked it out before the doors could swing shut of their own accord. "I don't think they can open them if they get closed. Maybe Ralacken would have to send one of its bodies."

"Let's find out," Sarah said. "Cover me, Mother." Never Mom, never anything so informal. But in the end, Sarah had finally begun to think of Justine as a mother. It felt strangely good.

Sarah-her daughter-took a running start and leapt from the ledge, seizing a cable that twisted and snapped at her hands. Justine raised the arm with her stake-shooter and began to fire methodically into the crowd of monsters. One, two, three-reload-one... It lacked the punch it would have had against vampires, but few creatures were unfazed by a footlong stake to center mass.

The cable tried to carry Sarah up to some higher level, so she released it and dropped, rolling. She came up with a kick to the nearest creature's sternum, sending it reeling back. It missed the opening but slammed into the montrance door, which shut on another monster's limbs. In their struggle to keep the door open, the guardians allowed the creature to fall the rest of the way inside, and Sarah slammed her shoulder into the door. With a resounding clang, it snapped shut, and Sarah rolled away as if stunned by the mere contact.

Daniel snatched her up in an instant. Now it was a matter of getting out of this city of horrors alive. Even with him on their side, Justine didn't give much for their odds.

Then twin flares of silver light engulfed her vision.

"That's two in a row off the map's edge," Lilah snapped. "And the map doesn't even have an edge. I'm making the call-this plan of yours is an epic failure. No more Exaltations. Not one. I'll figure out how to make this work with what I've got."

Five Days' Darkness held out his hands imploringly to her. "Lilah, I've done everything possible to convey the big picture to you. This is a failure of vision."

"With today's releases," Lilah growled,"I count fifty Exaltations loose in the world. I call that forty-nine too many. I'm done." She turned away and touched the machine's keypad. "No one's going to break that encryption. As soon as I figure out how to exempt myself, everyone else goes back in the box. Don't even think of standing in my way."

Lilah turned on her heel and walked out, leaving the Wolf, the Ram, the Hart-once the most powerful beings active in the world-to wring their hands, shuffle their feet, and wonder what their next move might be.

Amy focused her will and wrenched at the air molecules. She could do this. It was all telekinesis because everything was matter in motion.

A thin streamer of fire erupted out of nowhere and seared the paper target i. half. It fluttered loose from the wall, burning.

Light. Focus. Coherence. She hadn't specified agreen laser, but one speared through the bullseye.

She could do better. She'd deflected bullets with momentarily real solid metal plates. If she could create matter to defend-

A bullet pierced the last target through the eye. "Yes! Yeah! I got it!" Amy leapt up and clapped for herself. An audience would've been great but she didn't want to misaim.

"Got wh-?" A head poked around her door and Amy fired off a bolt of...something before realizing it was Oz. She had just an instant to try and wrench the energies into something less physical before they struck him. Oz staggered back against the wall, but the only visible sign she might have hurt him was the hand he put to his forehead.

"Oz? You okay? I didn't mean-"

"I'm fine," he said, rubbing his temples with one hand and shaking her off of him with the other. "I feel shook up. It didn't hurt."

Amy sighed and backed away from him. He was all right. But what had she done?

There was only one way to find out.

"There will be no cakes," Drusilla announced. "Miss Edith has fumbled her dance steps once more."

"Like, seriously, I could have done better than this with my hands tied behind my back," Harmony scoffed.

"You don't even deserve the name minions," said Buffy coolly. "And considering who you are..."

"I need not stand here for this," said the Viator to the rapidly-shifting figure. "Your plans are not mine."

"They encompass yours," Holland Manners said. "Your concept of world domination through force is obsolete. Soon all things will crumble without further effort on our part. We need only prevent the so-called heroes of the world from acting."

"Divert them just a little longer," Andrew said, "and our dastardly plans will come to fruition. All that's left..."

"...is to make them suffer as much as possible before the end," Angelus finished.

"And just how do we accomplish that without more Abyssals?" the Master grumbled to the changing figment. "I thought you were supposed to be more coherent than the rest of your kind."

"I AM NOT TO BE QUESTIONED!" roared Ligier, the long-ago Green Sun, now a slowly cooling stellar remnant.

"Coherent? I am beyond and before death," Erembour sighed. "Before the apple, the word, the impulse...I was."

A foreshortened skull reared high above them, ignoring the low ceiling as if it were nothing, held aloft on an infinite skeletal neck. "I am the First Evil, the King of the Neverborn. And I will wring the last feeble cry of this cosmos from Buffy Summers' throat as the final vengeance of the Dragon That Was."