"Paperwork, coming through!" Anya called out, making her way through the offices. She clutched a bundle thicker than her chest between both hands. "Coming through!" Younger Sidereals moved dutifully aside, though some were slow and sour-faced about it. Righteous Tsunami, however, was helpful enough to open her office door.

Anya plopped the stack down into her outbox and picked up an equally-large stack from her inbox. "Ugh," she muttered. "At least I'm getting paid."

"Not if you go and get your salary garnished," Tsunami warned. "The Bureau has conceded that your recent commandeering of the Calibration Gate was justified, but you are not authorized to change its position, or to hold it in place, for at least one year. You know you're playing with fire, Anya."

"Good thing I'm on the Convention of Water, then," Anya said. Tsunami's jagged-striped shirt was attractive in itself but not exactly flattering to his figure. Well, that was how he liked it. "Heard I finally got assigned a manse?"

"You know I'm not inclined to grant your travel request," Tsunami said harshly. "You may be officially independent, but your husband's a Solar. As far as I'm-"

"And my wife is Bronze Faction," Anya pointed out quickly.

Tsunami made a slashing dismissive gesture. "You know there's nothing legally-binding about that, whatever the Maidens say. Well...you choose to honor it, so I suppose you have a point. And in any case, you're on your way to confront a Deathlord, not to meddle in local politics. I expect you to keep a low profile, Anya. I know you can."

"Of course I can," Anya said coolly. "And if you need me to, I will."

"Here," Tsunami said, and dropped a silvery pentagonal stone into Anya's palm. "A stone of humble glory."

"A what?" Anya held it up and studied it. "Doesn't seem especially powerful," she said crankily.

Tsunami shrugged. "Make fewer enemies. It's right up your alley, though. As long as you tell the unvarnished truth, people will be inclined to do what you want."

"Oh!" Anya grinned. "Now that's a breath of fresh air. Thank you!" She unlimbered her powerbow and began settling the gem into its socket. "I'll treasure it always."

Righteous Tsunami threw back his head and laughed. "No doubt you will!"

Chapter 60-The Death of Water and Fire

Golden light shone around Buffy as the palanquin carried her down the street, borne by nervous erymanthoi. Or maybe it wasn't nerves; Ipithymia swarmed with neomah and all manner of other incubi and succubi. Blood apes didn't reproduce with sex, but they did like it.

Marzi lounged casually at Buffy's side, snuggling against her. Neomah didn't give birth either, or impregnate humans in the usual way. Fortunately. Buffy liked babies, but she wasn't sure she wanted one kicking around in her organs.

"You know you could carry the baby in your anima," Marzi murmured, and Buffy jumped. Had she spoken out loud? "It's an Adorjani thing. One of the less scary ones. Or we could just piece one together for you. Winifred's right. You should have an heir, just in case and to spread your rule while you live."

Oh. That was what it was. Marzi wasn't reading her mind. "I'm thinking about it." The idea of ruling forever was even less appealing than the idea of being pregnant. Living forever...sure, she could handle not dying. Running a country, though? It was enough to make her wish-j

No. No, no, no, a gazillion times no. The powers Sulumor had given her had been cut out of her, but she knew the path back to them. It would be all too easy to take them back, entirely on her own, and getting rid of them then would be even harder if it were possible at all. She needed some other kind of safeguard, but what?

The palanquin came to a halt. Buffy peered out the windows. Golden light still shone in imitation of the sun, and the streets still teemed with prostitutes. "Why're we stopping?"

"Don't look at me," Marzi said helplessly.

The doors popped open. On one side the Eater of Orchids stood with an unfamiliar neomah. On the other-Buffy's breath caught. A tall woman stood there, golden-skinned and four-armed and..."Ipithymia?"

"Buffy Summers," the living street said, smiling a smile that made Buffy want to puddle at her feet. "You've gotten strangely lax lately. What a shame if others eclipsed you in the Yozis' favor. You were doing so well."

Part of her cringed, but no sooner had Ipithymia mentioned the Yozis than her backbone firmed up. "I'm hard at work, but my friends needed my help."

"Of course," Ipithymia said indulgently, making Buffy tingle all over. "You've always made your friends and your work fit together before."

"And I will now," Buffy insisted. "I left another me, and I headed back as soon as I heard she wouldn't be enough."

"Hmm," Ipithymia said slowly. "Well, we did give you these powers. I suppose we can't very well fault you for using them, so long as things turn out all right. Eater of Orchids?"

"Thank you for taking care of my daughter," the man said quietly. He always spoke just loudly enough to be understood. "Buffy, come with me. Your palace is just off this street. We need to talk about your performance."

Well. That was ominous.

"Nothing," Tara said finally, recalling the firefly light. "Either there was never another way in, or it's been sealed." The light flitted to the one door they knew of and hesitated there.

"Don't discount supernatural concealment," Fred reminded her, "but it should be safe to probe inside with that."

The light flitted through the crack in the door. "I only get a general impression, but it'll tell us something at least. Did you know anything at all about magic before you came here?"

Fred shrugged. "Are interdimensional travel equations magic or science? Throth-Shulgu didn't think the question meant much." She wished she'd been able to get the Deep Sage to talk to her again. "I had to be initiated here, so I guess it wasn't sorcery. But it might be thaumaturgy, or some magic that no one knows here."

"Mind the gap," Tara said in a rather ominous tone. "There's a big pit-no, a trench or moat-not far past the door. That's weird, it's not very deep. I feel rock just a couple of feet down."

Fred blinked and nearly barged in to take a look. "What sense does that make? Is it a track for something? An animal? A machine?"

Tara shook her head. "If that's what it is the thing that runs in it has to be far away. There's no-Here's a door and another chamber. It's got a touchpad."

"That doesn't make sense," Fred reminded her. "No reason to have access. I guess we could be in the wrong place."

"Decoy?" Tara suggested. "You stop to try and open the door or deactivate a trap but the pad doesn't do anything, or turns on something else you don't want."

"I'd believe that," Fred agreed. "Can you get inside?"

"I can," Tara said, "but there's a presence in there and it might notice me."

"Almost certainly a bound spirit of some sort," Fred decided. "Nothing else would last this long except maybe a robot."

"How long has it been in there?" Tara mused. "Over a thousand years? Is it still...y'know...ok?"

"If it's an elemental or a terrestrial god...maybe. If it's local at least. If it's a demon or a ghost or a raksha..." Fred shuddered. "Not as likely."

"Going insane," Tara said as lightly as she could manage, "not for the faint of heart."

"Been there, done that," Fred agreed. "Looks like you got better."

Tara nodded. "It was mystical. Willow got my marbles back. If not for her...I guess I'd be locked up somewhere so I couldn't hurt myself."

"You owe Willow a lot," Fred observed, "so how come you seem scared of her sometimes?"

"Willow's a good person," Tara said, "and I know that because power would've corrupted her a long time ago otherwise. Power is a tool, and sometimes it's a mistake to turn it down, but Willow likes it way too much. At first we had a lot of fun together, like we did on the way to Luthe. And then she started doing everything with magic, just as her routine."

Fred nodded. "I haven't seen much of that as an Abyssal, but her powers don't seem to leave much room for fun, and only so much for utility." With a sigh, she turned back to the door. "I think we've learned what we can from out here. You want to risk it or head back to Luthe?"

Tara put her hand to the door and shrugged, then shoved. "You're certain there's a way around it. We'll find one. That wording keeps nagging at me."

The door swung open, and heat hit them like a wall, followed by searing hot gases that left them coughing. "I thought you said the trench was empty," Fred wheezed.

Between hacking coughs, Tara managed to explain. "No...I said...it had a...rock floor. Couldn't tell...it was molten."

It really was a palace. The tops of the towers were jagged, discolored metal, but clever artists had made the discoloration as beautiful a painting as any other pigment could have made and the jaggedness into a sculpted defense. The corridors twisted and roamed, but they didn't disorient, and the rooms fit together like puzzle pieces. The fierce masks were a little disconcerting, but they told her history, too.

None of that changed the comfort of the furniture or the spaciousness of the rooms. Cracked gemstones lit up with a touch; darkened glass kept out the heat and harsh light of the green sun. It was the palace of a Malificent, not a Cinderella, but it was no less wonderful.

Aphrodisia massaged her while Marzi served refreshments. Other demons roamed the halls but kept just out of sight as if wary of her. Only the unfamiliar neomah sat beside the Eater of Orchids, cuddled up to him in a bizarrely nonsexual way and very much covered. Both of them regarded her warily.

"Wait," Buffy said suddenly. "She's the daughter?"

The Eater nodded solemnly. "Rianine. I came here to find her. None informed me what had become of her until Cearr leaned on the right people. I owe him a debt now."

Buffy leapt for it. "You're on our side?" Poor kid. There were a lot of ways humans could be transformed into demons, and most were irreversible even in her time.

"Unless you have become a Yozi loyalist since you were last heard from. You do not communicate often with the others." The Orchid-Eater accepted a bottle of ordinary wine and a tray of what looked like metal leaves. "You have your own circle of friends, which has its uses, but we worry that you don't trust us."

"The group includes Cyan. Not gonna trust her. Wouldn't be prudent." Rianine nodded at Buffy's remark and took a small cup of wine from her father.

"Wise enough, I suppose," the Orchid-Eater said, "but you share common interests with her and none with Mister Big." That was a loyalist Fiend somewhere on the Blessed Isle; no one was sure who he was impersonating, though Cearr and Cyan liked to joke that he was Regent Fuck-Off. He probably wasn't. Probably. "Sometimes you need to accept that you cannot trust fully but must do so in part."

"I've been there and I've done that," Buffy grumbled. It hadn't always been bad; she thought Angel had been the first of those and he'd turned out...well, not all bad, at least. "Cyan hasn't screwed me over yet, and Sulumor has, and I thought she was my actual friend."

"Sulumor?" The Guardian raised his eyebrows at that. "Sulumor is Dune Folk, Buffy. She was raised to eat other humans. She may have learned to work with the rest of us...but to be a friend? Surely not."

"Do you think I can bring her over?"

"Hmm." The Orchid-Eater mulled that over. "She is not like us...but she acts from ambition, not true loyalty to the Yozis. I have my doubts that she intentionally betrayed you-she offered you the power you asked for and has since appeared confused that you rejected it. Your kingdom lies next to hers. If anyone can gain her allegiance, it would be you. But Buffy, we must speak of other matters."

"Ok. Smooth transition, that was not." Buffy spread out her hands. "Ipithymia said I wasn't doing as well as before."

"Not that." The Guardian took a long drink. "All of us rise and fall in the Yozis' favor, and your current task is a thankless one, I can assure you. First, come with me to your manse's hearthroom." He rose.

The corridors wriggled like snakes, but somehow failed to lose either of them. They were rising toward the center. "The Yozis cannot combine their powers," he told her. "But we can. And as we can synthesize new powers for ourselves and them, so too can we create new...blended powers they cannot use."

"Yozi smoothie powers?" Buffy chuckled. "Nice. Sounds like fun."

"Undoubtedly," the Guardian agreed. "I have nothing I can readily show you-a defense against transformative effects I call Emerald Angel Unfurling. But no doubt you can produce your own, given a little time. Ah...here we are." He slid back a pair of double doors, and the three of them emerged onto the roof, where a pool steamed and bubbled under the green light of the sun.

"I'm thinking taking a dip in the pool might not be a great idea," Buffy sighed. Even with the seething, the tiled edges and slightly-twisted ladders might have been a jacuzzi, perhaps, but she was sure that was vitriol, not water.

"You could," the Guardian demurred. "Though you might perhaps discourage others. In fact, you should get in. The hearthstone is at the bottom."

Buffy muttered under her breath and dove in. The acid stung, but no worse than a bowl of good chili would burn her tongue. Her skin tingled refreshingly. She picked up the stone and surfaced, holding up the translucent green gem. Something-a bug of some sort?-lay entombed at the center, but she couldn't make out what.

"A stone of the chrysalis, as I was told," the Orchid-Eater said, showing metallic teeth. "I hear you've been developing some interestingly...transformative powers of late. All you need do is sleep or meditate, and you will awaken in a new form."

"Not the biggest fan," Buffy sighed. Well, she had found some shapes she was comfortable with. Wings...prehensile hair. It couldn't be all bad.

"This is...oddly simple," Fred coughed. "I mean..." A burst of hacking overcame her briefly.

Tara took a step closer to the lava. She thought she understood. "Lava is deadly, but it's not complicated. You don't have to puzzle it out, with the right magicks." She took another step, and another, feeling her body shift into sync with the heat and toxic fumes. The coughing eased, then halted. She walked right up to the trench and looked down, feeling warm and no more.

"It's one thing...we can do...more easily...than Solars. In some ways...at least." Fred continued coughing. "I think...you've got...a higher tolerance...than me though."

"Keeping up with the Scoobies takes some doing," Tara admitted, "but I didn't live in the woods for five years." She leaned over the edge. "Even my clothes aren't catching fire."

"You've got one...up on Buffy, then," Fred laughed. "Her clothes keep... getting burned off. I don't know...I lived by...the seat of my pants, Tara. Not..." A fit of coughing overwhelmed her, and didn't pass this time.

Tara rushed back and crouched beside Fred, who could only lie there hacking. "Try. I'm sure you can do this." She made an effort to haul Fred up over her shoulder, but even the skinny physicist was too much for her. "You survived Leviathan's attack before you had that fancy armor thing."

A carapace of white bone crusted over Fred's coughing form, this time covering even her head, leaving tiny slits for her eyes and mouth. "That might protect you from the heat a while," Tara warned, "but I still can't carry you, and the fumes-"

Fred attempted to crawl up and over Tara's shoulder, her body still racked by coughs. "All right," Tara said reluctantly. She tried channeling the powerful magics directly into her muscles and, to her surprise, felt them responding. It wasn't much of a boost, but she struggled to her feet with Fred in her arms.

"Full Moon," Fred wheezed. Tara frowned. She was certain she wasn't going to end up-wait. Itwas full right now, wasn't it? Tara burned more energy into her aura and felt the burden ease. Silver light shone around her, and she took off at a run. Fred had already breathed too much of the toxic gas.

Tara reached the lava trench...and leapt over the edge. She dropped two feet, then landed on a surface that undulated like jello but held her weight. It might be different for Buffy, but as far as natural interaction was concerned, lava was far too dense for a human to sink into. Her feet made little bowl shapes on the surface as she ran, a surface that should have burned her feet away in moments but just felt like warm houseshoes. In a moment or two she leapt up and over the opposite ledge, but she kept running till she reached an alcove several yards away. The air was cooler here but not much more breathable. Here was the door with the keypad.

Why was it even here? No one should be going deeper into the tomb anyway. A silly thought struck her. She reached out and tapped the big button that seemed to serve as an "enter" key or call button. No code was needed, so why should there be one?

The door slid open, releasing cool fresh air. Tara stumbled inside and sat Fred gently against the wall. She would be okay. She just needed a little time to recover. That was all. It must be.

"I'll send up a flare," TARA said, and shot a sparkling burst of fireflies into the sky. "They should notice that."

"They'd better," Spike said from beneath his lifeboat. "I'm not sure how much more of this I can take."

Dawn scribbled some notes in the "ship's log" that was serving as her diary. "They're slowing," she observed. "They saw that." They'd been pursuing Luthe for three days now, but the immense city ship was just too fast for the splinter of a vessel they were sailing, Wyldborn powers or not. "What you were talking about, TARA...would I have my memories?"

TARA shook her head sadly. "Nothing. You'd at least be part of the real world, though."

Dawn crossed her arms. "Nope. Not a chance. My memories are all that make me me. Especially now."

"I just thought I would offer," TARA said. "There's a risk that I could have to hurt you, and I don't want that."

"Then don't," Dawn told her curtly. No matter what anyone else said, this robotgirl didn't seem much like Tara at all. She went off to the bow to wait and watch the city-ship approach.

Even with Luthe's engines slowed it took at least an hour to catch up, and a while longer to moor their "primitive" boat to the city. In the middle of it, though, Xander came scooting down the ladder and leapt onto the deck in front of her. Wow. Just wow. If he'd been magnificent before... "Xander," she said.

"Dawn," he answered, and smiled. "You're looking...different. All grown up." He patted her on the shoulder. "For you it's okay, for now, but just so you know, I'm asking new people to call me 'Alexander' in public now. Maybe you too, if it's formal."

Dawn grinned at him. "It's fine. I'm trying to come up with a formal raksha name myself. Still haven't remembered the one I started with." I am beautiful and terrible, she thought, only half at him.Everyone adores me. And she leaned forward-she was taller than him now!-and kissed him on the lips, weaving a gossamer thread about him as she did. You are beautiful and terrible. Everyone adores you.

Xander looked startled for a moment before-thankfully-deciding to trust her. The enchantment settled over him, redoubling his magnificence. "Lot of girls throwing themselves at me these days," he said when she finally broke the kiss. "At everyone really, but I sure have taken the best of it."

"No guys?" Dawn snickered. "I'll have to revise my stories about you."

"Some guys, actually," he said, surprising her. "I don't think Leviathan will like you much, though."

"I'll persuade him," she said confidently.

"You can try," Xander said. "He's been around the block a few times."

TARA gave Xander a concerned look before deciding to go on aboard, as did Spike and Angel, cloaked in tarps. Stephen, however... "He's the Lunar elder? And he likes you?"

"I was his lover in a past life," Xander said with a matter-of-fact nonchalance that belied the irritation Dawn could tell he felt. "He's pretty attached."

"Stephen," Dawn said, turning to face him imperiously, "go get settled in. Meet Leviathan if you like." Stephen blinked at her, bowed slightly without realizing it, and hurried off.

"Handy," Xander said as Willow and then Buffy-well, other-Buffy, the so-called Unconquerable Shadow-came scooting down the ladders beside Stephen going up. "Annoying little shit."

"He has his points," Dawn admitted. "But yeah, he can be a pain. Wi-Scholar. Shadow. Hi guys! Where's the others?"

"Buffy and Anya got called away on business," Willow said. "Fred's showing Tara the ropes of being a Lunar."

"She Exalted? That's awesome!" Dawn burst out in spite of herself. Most raksha wouldn't understand that, except maybe if they thought having Exalted friends would benefit them, but she wasn't most raksha, and she was pretty sure she still felt friendship. She thought. "She's a Lunar?"

"Buffy's mate," Willow said unhappily. Dawn frowned. She was pretty sure that wouldn't make Tara and Buffy be lovers if they didn't want to be. So what was the matter with Willow? Surely Tara hadn't left her. Was it just her looks? She wasgetting worse. "I hope it doesn't mess her up. She's kind of Ma-Ha-Suchi now."

"Oh," Dawn said, understanding. That...thing...that had attacked Gem was part of Tara now? No wonder Willow had the wiggins.

"Tara's strong," Shadow said. "She'll manage. Come on, let's have a sister talk?"

After being away so long? That sounded almostfun.

"I didn't realize I could do that," Tara said as Fred finally began to come around.

"Being Exalted is like that," Fred agreed, "a lot, actually. Strength isn't likely to be your big thing, but it's hard to be an Exalt and never fight. Where's the thing that was supposed to be in here?"

"Still trapped," Tara said, "maybe because I didn't try to put in a password. I just hit the open button. It's here, though."

"Something feels off," Fred worried. "It seems too easy."

"What if it is?" Tara asked. "I mean...what if it's not meant for us? Like in Harry Potter when the traps are meant to stop Death Eaters, so they hardly bother the kids at all?"

"That'd be easier to believe if they'd been higher-tech," Fred said with a frown. "We might figure out things that someone who grew up here couldn't. The keypad thing, maybe. But a lava pit? Lots of Exalts can get past that just like you did. I might be able to, but I got too big a lungful of that toxic gas first. You strike me as more the nature girl type. I can imagine you going literally anywhere and stuff just avoids you. You know, like...is it Balder?"

Tara grinned and giggled. "You know about Balder the Beautiful?"

"Beautiful? I thought he was Balder the Brave?"

"Only in the comics-well, I mean, he's probably brave in the myths too, but he's the original Norse bishounen," Tara explained. "He's summer. That's why he dies. But we need to get moving. I think we should assume whatever's bound here isn't getting out." That was a little sad, but it might have been too strong for them. She quickly recited the incantation to Aradia and sent the firefly light out to search beyond the second door.

"I miss Willow," Fred said. "It's weird because I don't even know her that well. I feel like I do. I want to get the chance to talk with her, and curl up with her-sorry, I'm babbling-"

"You remind me of her," Tara said. "She babbles too. It's adorable. Honestly, if we weren't together I might ask you out. Only you'd probably say no, cause-"

"I don't know," Fred interrupted in return. "I like more men than women, but I've made out with a woman or two before. Always when I was a little stoned, but I enjoyed it. What've we got out there?"

"Water," Tara said. "With fish in it. There's an airlock afterwards. Haven't checked past that yet." She probed further. "Another chamber with a spirit. I'm not sure if we can avoid this one."

"I wonder if they're not just there to keep people from searching past them," Fred suggested. "If this one doesn't attack, I think you should just keep searching past any others we find."

"Sounds reasonable to me," Tara agreed. "Let's get this door open."

It took a couple of minutes to hunt down the completely unmarked touchpad, lending support to the idea that they'd bypassed a troublemaking spirit. If it'd been trying to kill them, they'd have been in much bigger trouble. The metal wall slid down much faster than Tara had expected, releasing a wave of water to crash down over them. Fred went squid immediately, leaving Tara with a mouthful of air as the sudden change left her moments to inhale. Stupid, stupid!

Stupid, but not powerless. She could walk on lava; she could breathe water. Tara fumbled with the energies suffusing her and made it so. Very deliberately she let her last bit of air bubble upwards and inhaled water. It felt heavy and a little cold, but her thoughts and vision remained clear. A school of jellyfish collided with her, and she braced for pain, but none came.

She was surrounded by all manner of marine life, an interior ecosystem deliberately cultivated here somehow. She tried asking Fred if they had time to hunt here, but her power was unlike Buffy's, and the water reduced her voice to a gurgle. Tara resorted to pantomime, and finally Fred responded by pointing upward with a tentacle pad. Thumbs up.

Drowning wouldn't be enough. Something here would've been set to hunt her. Time to turn the tables on it.

"I know they made you. I know what they made you from," Shadow explained. "So now we have something in common. I'm just a copy of the real Buffy...but at the same time I'm my own person now. You are too."

"Buffy, I...I'm not sure I'm a person at all," Dawn said. "All the books here say...and I chose everything about this body...and..."

"I'm done with all that," Shadow insisted. "I'm tired of talking to people with feelings and dreams and having to believe it's all fake. If you try to hurt someone I care about, I'll stop you, but pleasedon't force me to."

"That's really strange coming from an Abyssal," Dawn pointed out.

"I'm the end of the line," Shadow said. "I'm the end of the mission, and the lies too. If the world needs me, I'll help, but I'm not alone any more, and I'm not killing any more demons just because they're demons. Or ghosts or raksha or anything else. That's what I'm ending."

"I don't think the Neverborn are gonna be satisfied with that." Buffy's resolve made Dawn happy, sure, but... "At least, not unless they know it'll get the world destroyed."

Buffy swayed and put her hand to her head. "You let me worry about the Neverborn, Dawnie. I'm not afraid of them. I'm going to be the one that kicks their undead butts. Clear? Now let's see what we have to do to get some ice cream in this high-tech dump."

It was clear all right. It was clear something new was wrong with Buffy. Now what did she want to do about it?

"I wasn't expecting to fight the Scorpion King!" Tara shouted, narrowly dodging a stinging tail.

"It's called a tinsiana," Fred called back as she slipped between the pincers of another. "They're pretty generally evil, so don't hold back."

"I figured that," Tara lied. Though their expression looked furious, she'd been taking into account that they might just be compelled to fight. Translating the new understanding into tactics was another thing, though, and they seemed to have guessed that she was the weaker of the two. Two of the three had focused on her, and Fred was having trouble assisting her without exposing her own back.

A full moon, incongruous though it felt, shimmered on Tara's brow now. They'd had some time to rest after the hunt, but not enough. Surely Luna opposed these creatures just as much as the Sun, but how did she express that? A glimmer came to her, a stance, and silver energy glimmered around her body as she dodged around a darting tail. If these things poisoned her, she'd be helpless fast. The creature suddenly flinched from stinging her and recoiled. "Demons don't like holy things," she called. "Dad would throw a fit!"

"Good job!" Fred shouted back. "That's not going to win the fight for us, though! Got another good idea?"

What would Willow do? No, she'd just toss lightning at it or something. "Can I do that thing...the one where you just change part of your body?"

"Probably?" Fred wasn't sure, and that could be trouble. "Focus on the parts you want to use, and change your image of what it means to be human. You're always human in your soul; remember that."

That didn't sound too hard. Leaping over the tinsiana's leg sweep, Tara pulled back her arm and punched the creature hard in its humanlike face. "What was that?" Fred sounded worried...then gasped and began to snort laughter as the tinsiana toppled over.

"Sea wasp. Most venomous creature in Earth's oceans," Tara said, shaking out her sore hand. "Not too shabby here either."

"Those jellyfish?" Fred laughed, tying up her tinsiana quickly in weblines. "You must've been quick. Just remember, learning new stuff will get a little harder soon. I'm glad you've picked out a few weapons."

"Had to," Tara said quietly as they finished off the last demon. They worked well together, but she would never really enjoy hurting or killing.

She hoped.

"You're sure about this?" Kate worried. For once the alley was actually sunlit, and looked all the grimier for it.

"Nope," Faith said. "I'm kinda worried about saying it wrong and ending up...I dunno, on Bizarro-world or something. But we need someone with more experience, and short of raising the dead, that means Buffy."

"Does she really have the kind of experience you're looking for?" Harmony wondered. "Lilah Morgan's not exactly Mayor Wilkins."

"If she doesn't, Giles might," Faith suggested. "Or I might even try asking one of the Exalted from there. Someone's got to know how to take down a sleazy politician who's always five steps ahead of you, and it's not me."

"I just hope you can get back," Kate worried. "They meant to be there a week or less and come right back, and that...didn't go as planned."

"They didn't know how to get back till it was too late," Faith argued. "Now stand back. I'm gonna say it before I lose my nerve."

The vortex was purple this time. Faith took a deep breath and a running leap, and found herself stumbling through an actual physical gateway. The crumbling walls of an ancient tower stood around her, its double doorway empty, and behind her a gemstone-studded arch.

Scowling, Faith stalked outside onto the barren beach of a rocky island. Beyond the narrow outcrop of land lay only open sea. She put a hand to her face. "Goddamnit!"

Tara and Fred were sagged against the bare rock wall of the tomb together, Tara's head in Fred's lap. Sleeping didn't seem like the best of ideas, but she was wearing down, and Fred had agreed to keep watch. Tara's brain, however, was not cooperating. "Is it day or night out there? I mean, it's either got those little glowy gems or it doesn't in here but I can't actually get myself to believe it's really night time, y'know?"

"If it helps, it's nine-fifteen at night." Tara looked at her quizzically. "Don't waste the energy now unless you have to see for yourself, but it just takes a little spark. How does Willow help you sleep? Magic?"

Tara went bright red, and Fred felt her face flush in return. "It's okay. It was a p-perfectly reasonable question."

"Um...did your mother sing to you?" God, that had been a fumble, with Tara lying on her like this. Shewas cute...no, that was the drowsy talking, and Fred had seen the complicated mess Xander and Anya had made of their relationship. She didn't have anyone of her own, but the last thing she wanted to do was get between Willow and Tara.

"She did, but it doesn't help much. I'm not sure it ever did. I'm just sort of wound up." Tara blushed again. "N-not like that! We're off on a m-mission!"

"It's okay," Fred assured her. "Honestly, most of us seem a little wound up that way. The worst of it seems to go along with enhanced senses and...um, stamina. I'm sure you can think of reasons."

"Makes sense to me," Tara said. "Everything stimulates you more and you can keep going longer. I'm not a prude for being a little uneasy about that, am I? I've known Buffy for a while and she always did seem a little...hyped up."

Fred shook her head firmly. "It's okay to be nervous about new things. And you've always seemed pretty open to me for being as shy as you are."

"It's a reaction," Tara said. "Grew up in the-" A rumble from deeper in the caverns cut her off. "Ugh. So much for napping."

"We'll get there," Fred assured her. "We'll get back to Luthe and you can snooze as long as you need to."

The walls shook. "Who violates my rest? Who would dare invade my tomb?" Tara went pale, and Fred suddenly realized she had danced around this aspect of the expedition every time it had come up.

Suddenly Tara shook herself and stood up. "It's the inscription. They've got him defending his own tomb against intruders. He hasn't been able to rest for fifteen hundred years, Fred. I didn't want to think about it, but it's not just okay for us to be here. It's right." And she strode off down the tunnel.

"What?" Fred scrambled to her feet. "Tara, what are we doing?"

"Mercy, Fred. Remember?"

"Bloody hell! Is there anyone you won't screw nowadays, Harris?" Spike covered as best he could. He didn't care if Harris and the Bit slept together-except on the general principle that the former deserved to suffer, which admittedly was rather important to him.

"You," Harris said far too casually, and attempted to pull the blankets up over Dawn-who, however, sat up and grinned impishly at Spike.

"Not worried about that," Spike said irritably. "But Bit, you deserve better than him."

"Like who?" Dawn asked, a glint in her eye. "You? Feel free to join us. I'm sure Alexander won't mind. Right...Admiral?" She began to slide out of the bed.

Buffy would wring his neck! Either or both of them! Spike stammered something and fled the room.

The old Scooby Gang was getting far too confident to make him comfortable. Only, where else to go in this world? Buffy was fine here and showed no interest in him any more, so far as he could tell. Maybe it was time to pack the bags and head home.

The corridors were shiny and clean. and seemingly endless. He opened the door that he was certain ought to lead to his temporary apartments and stopped in his tracks. Wrong room. "Red."

Willow glanced up at him. The whites of her eyes, at least, were red. Her face and body still showed traces of her old looks, but only traces. Her exposed flesh was shriveled and blackened. "Spike," she said flatly. "I haven't seen you lately."

"I've been here and there," he said. "I don't suppose that lets up when you feed?"

Willow shook her head regretfully. "I think it's going to keep getting worse. Tara's not going to stay much longer. Fred might hang around, but only because she can't help it."

Spike gave that news the harsh laughter it deserved. "Fred seems less shallow than that, far as I can tell. As for the witch, seems to me she's always cared more about the soul than the container-long as that container has a quim, mind. She may not go for the gold quite so often, but I doubt she's leaving the race. The question is, when're you going to work out how to look different for a while?"

Willow blinked. "You think I should use a glamour?"

"Call it what you like, Red. All I know is, I don't see the Exalted letting little things like looks stand in their way."

The ghost leveled a gun of some sort at her. Tara ignored it. Well...she paid it no mind. Ignored was too strong a word. "How long?" she asked.

The man-a grizzled veteran in a visor and faint golden armor-tossed his head like an irritated stallion. "Long enough," he muttered, and fired.

Tara stepped aside and let the beam pass her, startling him. "You've been alone all this time?"

"Have to guard this place," the once-Solar said. "Company's no use." He fired again, and once again the beam seared uselessly into the stone wall. "You can't do that. I'm Bright Guardian of Day. I'm a general in the Deliberative army. I don't care if you're an Exalt, you can't sidestep my shots that easily."

"I'm sorry, Bright Guardian," Tara said quietly. "You've been dead a long time. They set you to guard your tomb and everything in it."

"No! Who would dare-?" Bright Guardian halted. "The massacre at the feast. The Dragon-Blooded...the Sidereals...no! The Terrestrials swarmed us like rats." He attempted to lower his weapon, then struggled for a moment and brought it to bear on Fred as she walked around the bend. "They have me bound. I can't not guard this place."

"What place?" Tara asked simply, and the ghost jerked aside as it fired, pointing its weapon down the tunnel.

"The tomb's in there. But you mustn't reach it-"

"Stop us," Tara said, and shot down the tunnel with her hand in Fred's. Blaster fire echoed, and she shoved Fred across the tunnel and dove in the other direction. The cavern was littered with bones. The seeming ease of the early traps had lured in uncounted treasure hunters, only for them to reach this point of no return and perish.

The ghost was armed with ancient high-tech weapons and armor. If it had retained its Solar powers, Tara would have died before she knew what was happening. As it was, she still couldn't let him strike home. Not even once. And her energy was running low. Not good.

Bones whirled into the air. "If you think you can make me blast the door open for you, you're mistaken.". Ancient and not-so-ancient ribs and femurs fractured against the walls, becoming a dizzying cyclone of shrapnel.

If she weren't close to the door, he wouldn't be concerned. But it would be concealed, perhaps magically. Whispering, she summoned up the firefly light again and sent it through the walls before it could draw attention. There. That was the other side. She was close. Tara felt for a lever, a button, anything. A fragment of skull slashed her face; a broken rib pierced her wrist. She wasn't going to have time. Where was Fred? Had she been knocked unconscious? Killed?

" Found it!". Tara called out, and dove frantically to the side. A burst of white energy seared past her and shattered the rock face, leaving a clear path into the room beyond. Tara dropped to all fours and rolled through the door, catching a glimpse of a cockroach buzzing past. Fred had sensibly made herself hard to hit.

The room was stacked high in silver and gold-no telling how much of it was orichalcum and moon silver, really. Living tapestries draped the walls. A little sluggish river of lava cut across the chamber, glowing with red-gold light. Great chests stood against the wall, closed to conceal who knew what. And raised in a little starmetal-grey framework, an uncarved crystal the size of an apple and shaped like an egg shone lava light reflected from the floor up onto a golden-amber gemstone that sat in a niche on a huge stone sarcophagus.

The floor was empty of bones. No one had ever reached this far. No one had even tried talking to the guardian? Of course not. They had come here to raid...and the Sidereals' curse had fallen on them. They had shown no mercy, and had died without it as certainly as a man in a hot zone would die without a protective suit.

"This looks important," Tara said, stepping toward the framework, her hand outstretched for the crystal.

"It binds me here," the ghost said simply, and raised his weapon. Tara feinted a grab for it, leapt aside as the energy burst shot past her, and kicked it out of the frame. "Thank you," Bright Guardian whispered, and flickered out like a shot bulb.

The volcano rumbled like an angry dragon, the stone set into the sarcophagus cracked with an explosive sound, and the little lava river surged up in flood. "Well, poop," Tara sighed.

Fred popped into visibility next to her. "Darn it," she grumbled. "Grab what you can carry. He must have been tied into this place's geomancy. Don't ask me how."

"I don't think we're getting out with much," Tara worried. She might survive the lava flows, but could she escape if they buried her?

Fred picked up a weapon from the lid of the sarcophagus, a golden duplicate of the pallid one the ghost had carried. "Show me the nearest outside wall," she said, "and we'll blow this popsicle stand."

Faith gazed out over the water in all directions. To the west, endless water seemed to dissolve into a chaotic mixture of colors. The north and south seemed much the same, though not as bright. But in the east, the ocean and the clouds seemed to melt together into one endless wall of water. That had to be the wrong way.

It was going to be a long flight. Faith rose from the ground and shot west like a rocket.

"Well," Fred said, "we got what we came for.". Their little skiff contained two chests, a few unknown devices that looked interesting, and several hearthstones, not counting the one that had shattered, of course. " And we put a very old ghost to rest. I would've liked to get the rest, but this counts as a win to me."

"I guess the rest will be there for someone who can dig through hardened lava," Tara said as the boat skimmed quietly out into the ocean. "Didn't you say artifacts were usually indestructible, or nearly so?"

Fred began to nod. Just then the volcano let out a roar and a burst of burning ash. The sea kicked up a great circular wave that slammed the two of them into the railing, and Tara found herself mashed into Fred and clinging to something that was decidedly not a rail. Her face was inches from the other woman's, and dizzily, she felt their lips brush. The boat stabilized, but the kiss grew briefly forceful.

Then, by mutual but unvoiced agreement, both of them guiltily pulled away. "Er," Tara said, "I think this is where we say 'let us never speak of this again,' right?"

Fred nodded vigorously and hurried to the tiller. "Let us never speak of this again," she agreed. It was for the best.