"Begun by blood," He raised the knife. "By blood undone," he brought the knife down, the steel flashing in the flickering firelight.

The blade came down and cut a long gash in Andrews hand. Merrick then took Andrews hand, ignoring the boys protests and pleas, and placed it over the eye at the center of the triangle on the wall.

As soon as Andrews bleeding hand made contact with the triangle the whole cavern began to shake violently. Everything became a blur as reality melted into the spirit dimension and the fabric of time unraveled itself as Merrick was thrust through its folds back to the time he wanted to be in.

The whole world seemed to be spinning and Merrick felt the distinct sensation that his body was being ripped apart as something seemed to be trying to burst from inside.

Then as suddenly as it had all began it stopped, everything slammed back into place. Only they weren't in the cave any more, they were in a sunlit room. And nothing was normal, everything was in an odd shade of color and everything seemed out of place. It was the world as it is seen from the spirit world.

They were not alone in the room, there were two women there also; one was a thin read-head in a white shirt and the other was a more voluptuous blonde in a blue sweater.

BANG!BANG!SMASH!

"Oh your shirt."

Merrick watched as Tara fell to the floor and as Willow begun her soulless wailing. He watched as Tara's spirit rose from her now useless body and materialized in the spirit world. She looked back at Willow wailing over her body sadly and began to ascend to the higher plane for which she was destined.

"Don't go."

She looked back and was surprised to see Merrick standing there.

"Who are you?" she asked, surprised at the floaty, echoed tone her voice had taken on.

"Stay." Merrick produced a fist sized glass ball from his pocket and it began to glow eerily; he muttered a few words in a strange, ancient language and it began to glow brighter.

Tara looked at the ball an felt mesmerized. She felt herself being drawn towards it. And then suddenly she was drawn towards it, and sucked inside.

Merrick took one last look at Willow banishing Osiris for his inability to bring back her lover. He smiled sadly as he wondered whether it would have actually been easier if none of this had actually happened. He then produced a small glass vial filled with a strange black liquid and threw it at the ground.

Merrick again felt the sensation of the world spinning again, this time everything was in reverse; instead of feeling like he was being ripped apart he felt like something was being forced back into his body.

Reality returned to its normal state as Merrick was slammed back into it and fell to the floor. A burst of bright light exploded from the triangle throwing Andrew across the cave and slamming him into the far wall.

Merrick got to his feet and brushed himself down. He looked over at Andrew, feeling a little guilty at what he now had to do.

Andrew struggled to his feet and looked at Merrick.

"Why? Why did it have to be me. I've already done this once. And I hated it then!"

"It had to be you because you've already done it once. It was your blood that caused this mess and activated the eye so it had to be your blood that activated it again to undo what was done."

Andrew nodded.

"So I guess I'll just be going now then..." He turned to leave.

"I'm afraid not." Merrick sighed heavily "a sacrifice must be made."

Andrews eyes widened in shock as he realized what Merrick had said. He took a step back in fear as Merrick took a wrought silver medallion from his pocket. It was a single piece of silver about the thickness of a piece of spaghetti and it had been woven around itself to form some sort of complex Celtic style symbol hanging from a piece of rope.

Merrick held it up and began to speak words in another long dead language. A strange sound came from the Celtic symbol as it began to vibrate fiercely on the end of it's piece of rope. It began to light up and became brighter and brighter until it lit up the entire cavern drowning out the flickering light coming from the torch. Merrick finished his incantation and the symbol unwound itself to form one long string of light which shot straight at a dazzled Andrew and disappeared inside him.

Light began to emit from Andrews eyes nose and mouth as he screamed. He then exploded in a shower of little white lights which hovered where they were like tiny stars. Merrick then held up the glass ball which held Tara's spirit and muttered another incantation and a small wisp of silvery smoke floated from the ball and headed straight for the small star formation in the middle of the cave. The whole lot began so spin wildly until it merely became a bright light, which the died down to reveal a naked blonde girl lying on the floor shivering.

She moved to stand but noticed her lack of clothes and quickly covered up. Merrick removed his coat and handed it to her. She looked up at him questioningly; he was worn out and drained from his tip through the spirit dimensions, which is bad at the best of time but he had to drag a spirit with him and transfer body's.

"Who are you? Where am I?" She asked.

"What... what do you remember?" He panted.

"Not much."

He smiled guiltily. That would be easier.

"I remember home. My father. Moving to Sunnydale. But after that it all becomes a blank. How did I get here?"

"Magic." He moved his wet hair out of his eyes with his hand "I guess I have a lot of explaining to do. However this is not the place for such an explanation. I suggest a warm place, more clothes and possibly some hot chocolate."

Tara let her smile reply for her.

"Come on then." Merrick led the way out of the cave and to Andrews old Volvo.

"This must be your car?" asked Tara

"Well it is now." Merrick muttered sadly.

They got in and Merrick started the engine and drove away.

It took them a full two hours to get to Los Angeles and Merrick's small apartment. Tara though that it certainly didn't look like much at all from the outside but was shocked when he opened the door to reveal a spacious but homely interior. Almost all the floor space was taken up by, not furniture but odds and ends from different periods in history. The place looked almost like an antiques dealership. She went over to his packed floor to ceiling bookshelf, which looked a lot like a mini library. She was amazed at the number of incredibly rare volumes he possessed.

"It's not much. But I call it home."

"I love it."

Merrick smiled at the compliment.

"Would you like to sit down."

Tara turned in surprise and noticed that Merrick was pointing at a sofa that she had previously though was non existent, she smiled gratefully and sat down.

"I'll go and make that hot chocolate I promised you. And then I have some explaining to do."

Tara nodded. She was weary from the adventure she didn't even know she had had. Perhaps if she had not been so tired for no apparent reason she would have been more cautious of this stranger. But she knew a few spells and was confident she could escape if she had to.

"Erm... feel free to dig out some clothes or something. I didn't think about you not having any clothes after everything." Merrick indicated to his bedroom which was filled with a single bed and a large wardrobe.

He then turned and went into his small kitchen where he leaned up against the worktop and let out a sigh of relief. He had done it. He had accomplished what was all but impossible. But he still didn't know if it would work. He still needed and explanation to keep her from leaving. The truth maybe...

TBC