This is a fairly large chapter because I couldn't think of a good point to end it, hope you like it


After that, it was a quick few hours of being released, given a tent to themselves, buckets were brought to bathe from and food was replaced and reoffered. Buffy and Faith felt uneasy taking food that the Clans had said was scarce, but at the pushing of the Putorna – Warriors needed food and children knew that no warriors meant no more food at all – they quickly ate it and pushed away the guilt it caused.

After a rest, Ollordna the grey Putorna, came back and filled them in a little more.

The spell she had cast meant that the Slayers would now understand any in the land so speech was no longer a problem. Weapons were definitely not a problem as any warrior that died, their weapons were returned to the Clans for the younger warriors to take. They both had opted for a couple of daggers each and a few of the handheld darts, minus the poison, and a sword each. They both passed on the spears and shields.

Another day of rest and information and both Slayers felt ready to head off and look around.

Ollordna led them to a group of warriors who would lead them to the edge of the Sky Crossers land. It couldn't tell them who or what the Sky Crossers were as no one of the Clans had seen them and lived, but it did say that they lived in tall stone tents in cities. How many there were or even their weaknesses were also information lacking.

"Buff, you feel like we are kinda heading into a battle with one hand behind our backs and a blindfold on here?" Faith had been twitchy about the entire thing, the only good thing she would agree on was that they were out of the cages at least.

Buffy shrugged. Of course they were going in blind. But she didn't feel as though they had much choice. It was at least a chance to find a way home if nothing else. It sounded as though these 'Sky Crossers' controlled the portals so finding out more info and killing more of those demons was a step in the right direction.

They head out just as the darkness lighten to what the Putorna said was midmorning. Leaving the Slayers at the edge of their range, they pointed the Slayers towards the mountains. Telling them that the day's travel would get them to the edges of the city, they turned and left.

Without a look back, Buffy head off, Faith a step behind.

The Putorna were correct. It was fully dark by the time the Slayers reached what could only be termed a city of sorts. In a valley between the mountains, the Slayers came across what could only be several towers. Well, giant stone pillars in a circle with bridges of stone connecting them at various levels. Like a child's sandcastle in stone. There were no creatures to be seen though. An opening in one of the pillars gave them an opening.

Creeping around the castle like rooms, there were indications of something living there. Or at least lived here once.

Bones and scraps of rags littered the corners and corridors. The stench of death was thick in the rank air. But the silence was the worst thing. It wasn't the natural silence of empty places, but the silence of death. Not even their footsteps echoed in the dark. When they had entered, the first thing they had done was make torched from the long bones and rags to be able to see. But the smell it caused made them gag until they learnt to stay out of the smoke. They finally found stairs going up, still littered with the remains of dead creatures. None of the remains even looked remotely human, something that both the Slayers were relieved to see. That meant that as far as they could ascertain, no humans had been sucked into any portals here.

After several torch switches and many many staircases, they heard their first sounds other than theirs. And typically, they were sounds they were not surprised to hear.

Moans drifted towards them. Speaking silently, they crept to the nearest door. As it was cracked open, they were able to lean through and had a look.

The room lit with what looked like electric lights, but without a closer look, they couldn't be sure. But their attention was distracted by what was in the room. It was filled with cages, big and small and every cage was filled with demons of all kinds and sizes. Some the women knew, either from battling them or seeing them in the various research sessions. Others they had no idea. All the demons were in different stages of injury and many looked to be dead. A few were even rotting in their cages. Obviously their captors had no interest in actually caring for their prisoners. Even moving through the room made no difference. The demons were all trapped in their own misery. Finally making it through the door on the other end, Faith and Buffy shared a look of understated horror. There was nothing they could do for the captured creatures but end whoever or whatever put them there in the first place. Several more rooms yielded the same result. But the further they moved, the deader the demons became. It was obvious this had been going for a long time.

Finally they were in a room with empty cages. In the next room, they could hear voices and machinery sounds. Spying from the open door, Buffy and Faith watched as several emaciated demons carried a caged demon to a metal bench. Hauling the cage up and tying it down securely, they hurried to the other side of the room where three cloaked figures were working at a large computer console. A whirling sound echoed and from the ceiling came a mechanical arm of sorts that looked like a 1950's version of an alien laser. Buffy shared a look at Faith. This was so reminiscent of the Initiatives setup if it had been from the 50/60s. A light shot from the arm, startling the Slayers. A scream filled the place as the demon in the cage writhed in agony. 'Well, at least we know how and why those demons ended up dead in cages' Buffy thought, swallowing harshly to keep from yakking on her shoes. A glowing crack started to appear in the open space in the middle of the room. A portal appeared and grew to the size of a human. One of the cloaked figures hurried to the portal, waving a handheld sensor of some kind. After taking some readings, it hurried back and stood with the other cloaked figures and proceeded to push random buttons. The demon in the cage suddenly stopped screaming and slumped and the beam to the portal shuddered and died away.

A scream of rage sounded and a fourth cloaked figured slammed out from an unseen door.

"NNOO! I told you imbeciles that we needed to have TWO in the extractor! TWO!" He stormed over and backhanded one of the cowering cloaked figures. The hood fell back and Buffy and Faith shared a knowing glance. Human, or at least human looking. But scarred beyond belief. As though he had survived a nasty fire. Buffy looked at the caged demon and connected the dots. Obviously the grumpy one hadn't just limited the torture to demons.

Her attention was drawn back to the room at the screaming tantrum being held there.

"Why am I dealing with such incompetents? Bring TWO more and let's see if we can get it RIGHT this time!" With a swinging punch to a cowering demon, the screaming man spun and stormed back to his door, slamming it behind him. With a snarl to his companions, the hoodless man strode to the demons and with punches of his own, directed the terrified creatures to fetch more cages.

With barely time to hide behind the cages lining the room, Buffy and Faith crouched as the demons hurried through to the previous room with the old cage and hurried back carrying two cages between them all.

With white faces, Buffy and Faith waited until the demons were in the other room before rushing back to the relative safety of a room a floor down. From here, they couldn't hear the agonising screams of tortured beings. Faith's face was white. She had avoided the Initiative testing facility so hadn't been faced with the kind of cruelty Buffy had seen there.

"Buffy, what the hell man! That was just horrible as fucking shit!" She was shaking and Buffy could see the dark slayer trying to calm herself. Buffy could feel the bile rising in her own throat.

"We have no idea what we are facing here Faith. We have to try and find out more. I don't want storm the castle until we know exactly what we are up against." Buffy stalked from one side of the room to the other. "I think we can safely assume that these parts are fairly safe to hang out in. There are no signs that they venture down here every often, but to be on the safe side, lets head to one of the lower levels and try and get a little bit of rest before we do a search. No reason to be exhausted before we have to take them on. At the very least, let's try to figure out how that thing works. I reckon it's our only way home." Both women looked at each other, horror on their faces at the thought of the torture they would create by getting home.

Making their way down in the darkness, as they had ditched their torches at the first room, they found a room off a far corridor that looked completely deserted. Cobwebs filled the corridor and the door at the end groan softly as they forced it open. While there was the ever present detris that littered the rest of the building, it wasn't as bad and only required a few kicks to clear the room. A bit of fumbling around meant that they had another torch burning sluggishly enough to see. Eating the travel pack food provided by Ollordna, Buffy took first shift while Faith settled down and slept uneasily for a few hours. They then traded and while Buffy slept, she didn't wake refreshed at all.

It was while they were resting that Buffy felt the tingles on the back of her neck increase. While both Slayers had felt the familiar signs of demons, they had managed to ignore it in the time they were here. Now though, it was annoying as she tried to rest. After a while, she gave it up as a bad job and Faith and Buffy quietly discussed their next move. The only thing they could think was to check out the various towers then return here and then venture back upstairs and learn some more about what exactly was going on here.

Hours later, they crept back into their chosen hideout. The other towers, fairly easy to access, were as empty as this one. The same rubbish littered everywhere, telling the slayers that it had once been some sort of city, but that a battle had happened a long time ago and now that only residents were the poor creatures in the cages and their cruel masters. With heavy hearts, they made their way back upstairs, taking the time to be quiet and secretive, creeping around corners and slinking up corridors. Before long, they could hear the moans of caged demons. Slinking though the caged filled rooms, it wasn't long before they made it to the door that led to the main room. With a telling look at each other, Buffy peered around the door. A cage with a demon looking pile shuddering at the bottom was still strapped to the table. There was no sign of the loose demons or their hooded masters. With a nod of encouragement, Buffy slipped through the door and while Faith waited, hurried to the far door, hiding behind cages and scattered equipment until she was flat against the wall next to the door. While the door was luckily open a crack, it wasn't wide enough to see through. Making the heart pounding decision to dart across, Buffy was soon pressed up against the door jam, peering through. It seemed as though this might be the living area. Pallets of blankets lined the far wall, while more consoles and machinery lined the other. It was empty as well. Hitching a shoulder in confusion at Faith, Buffy pushed open the door and entered. Yup, empty. She waved Faith in and was searching the room while Faith stalked the other side. It was Faith that found the small room off the side. Littered with parchments and books, rotten plates of old food and the only real bed they had seen in this entire realm, it was obviously the room of the leader himself. Taking the risk, Faith and Buffy searched the parchments and books, but none read in English, of course, and they soon gave it up as a lost cause.

"B! We gotta go. I don't wanna be here when they get back from where ever their creepy asses went!" Faith hissed. "This whole thing is as hinky as fuck!" Buffy fully agreed. Trying to leave it as they found it, they had just made it to the lower floor when they heard the machine start up and another scream filled the air.

"Huh? We were just there? What the fuck dude?" Faith spun around and raced back before Buffy could pull her back. Shaking her head at the other slayer, Buffy hurried after her.

"Faith! FAITH!" She whispered harshly, but Faith ignored her and Buffy only caught up to her as they reached the second room of cages. They shared a series of head shakings and scowls until Buffy threw her hands up in disgust and motioned the stubborn Slayer ahead of her. Sure enough, the room now held all four hooded people. Or men as they could now see, as the hoods had been thrown off as all four were dripping wet. The demon in the cage was no longer screaming but still alive as it thrashed violently in its cage as the beam shone on it.

At a movement from one of the men at the console, the bean powered down and the poor demon slumped with a pained groan in its cage. Ignoring it, the men seemed to be entering more information into the machine.

"That went well. I think we are getting there. Soon we will be home and with the knowledge we have gained here, we should be able to take our rightful places once more!"

Buffy rolled her eyes, great, the usual bullshit never changes, even if the dimensions do!

"Greaaor, feed our pets and then bring them to the Dimension room, I want to see if we have enough information to pull up the portal to our homeworld. I want to see if we have the coordinates right this time. That last test showed we were close!" One of the men nodded and hurried to the room Faith and Buffy had found earlier, only to return with two small pig-like creatures. If someone had crossed a snake and a pig that is. Holding the squirming scaled fork tongued pig things firmly, he hurried past the quickly hidden slayers and went down the corridor that they had yet to explore.
Not wanting to be caught, the women stayed were they were and listened as a creaking sound signified a door being opened. Snarls and growls echoed up the hallway and Buffy felt her gut clench. She knew that sound... somehow. But the memory stayed distant and she forced it away. Just as Faith and Buffy were silently discussing moving to go look, he came back, yelling that he needed the others to help as "those filthy creatures were too lazy to do their job!" The two others followed him out and shortly, after the Slayers heard shouts and the sound of fists hitting flesh, they all returned, this time with the demons carrying a large covered cage.

The two slayers waited until they were sure they weren't coming back and made their way out of the room, heading back to their safeout. Screams followed soon after and again, Buffy felt the clenching in her guts, She spun to go back, instinct screaming at her to return, but it was Faith this time that caught her arm.

"Buff, we know what's going on, do you really wanna see it again?" Buffy stood there, torn. On the one hand, she wanted to get far away from that screaming as she could, but her instincts were clawing at her to get back, to see, JUST GET BACK! Faith saw the indecision and tugged the other Slayer forward. "Come on B, let's check out the rest of this floor, yeah? While they are busy?"

Decision made, they made their way out the room and down the corridor. Several doors opened yielded nothing but more bones and rags. One was full of weapons and furniture as though tossed in from the doorway and Buffy made a note to return there to check it out as soon as possible.

Finally, they found the door that must hold 'the pets'. Fresh blood droplets marked the floor and doorway and again, Buffy's instincts started hollering at her. One look at Faith and she knew she was the same. Drawing their daggers for the first time, Faith nodded to Buffy and forced the door open, both women slid in and closed the door quickly before turning to study the room. Dead animals were scattered around, blood covered practically every surface and the stench was overwhelming. Gagging, the two slayers made their way to the only thing in the room, a covered cage dead set in the middle of the room. A swath of cleared space around the cage spoke volumes to the Slayers, who kept to the outside of the cleared area. As they got close, a growling started from the cage.
Deep and menacing, it made the hairs on Buffy's entire body stand up. They both stood just at the edge of the cleared area and using a leg bone of some long dead creature, Faith lifted the corner of the covering up. A vicious snarling filled the room and the cage rocked violently, as the creature it confined threw itself at the bars.

A long muscular arm swiped at the bone, smashing it from Faith's grip and sending it smashing into shards on the far wall. Holding her aching hand, Faith whispered a streak of curses.

But Buffy couldn't tear her eyes away from the cage.

Her mind stirred, memories forcing their way forward. Shaking her head in denial, her fist pressed firmly against her lips, Buffy shuddered. She DID know that sound. She had heard it so many years ago. She had wept over that sound. She had made decisions and copped consequences over that sound. Faith looked at her worriedly. But she didn't, couldn't take the time to speak to the other Slayer.

Instead, she stepped forward, the vicious snarling increasing and the cage rocked violently. With a shaking hand, she pulled the cover from the cage and stepped back, Faith's horrified cry echoing in her ears.

Angel's vampire face snarled from behind the cage bars and his arm reached for Buffy, his claws broken and bloodied.


Yay! Angel's finally back! Hope this wasn't too long of a chapter...