Chapter 47: Anne

August 31, 1998 – Monday

Buffy's Dreamscape

The waves crashed gloriously onto the bright and silent beach. She walked slowly, in a light sundress, her bare feet digging into the sand. It was a warm and calming tabeau and she was soaking it up. She stopped as she looked off in the distance.

She shut her eyes, letting the sun warm her face. It was at that moment a pair of arms wrapped themselves around her from behind. Instinctively she knew it was, her beloved Angel. He buried his face in her neck as she reached up to to caress his face. "How did you find me here?" she asked.

"If I was blind, I would see you," Angel said intimately.

"Stay with me," Buffy pleaded.

Angel smiled. "Forever. That's the whole point. I'll never leave," he said as he lowered his voice to a whisper. "Not even if you kill me."

Buffy's Apartment, Los Angeles

Buffy woke suddenly as she heard a screech of tires and a siren outside. She got wearily out of bed and walked slowly forward to the window. She leaned out the window and looked down at the street below.

September 1, 1998 – Tuesday

Harry's Café

Buffy dropped plates of food off at a table. She then approached another table, that a few roughnecks sat at, finishing their meal. "Anything else?" she asked.

"That'll do us, peaches," one of them said.

Buffy ripped off their bill from her pad and put it on the table without making eye contact. "Pay at the counter," she told them.

"Sure, you don't want me to work it off?" he answered leering a her. Buffy turned away without comment and he slapped her ass.

Buffy turned back toward him slightly, slayeresque intent in her eyes. After a moment, it flickered and faded as she moved on to the next table. A couple sat there, giggling and examining the tattoos on each other's forearms. "Are you guys ready?" she asked.

"Yeah, I think we're good, um…" the guy said as he craned to see Buffy's name tag, "…Anne."

"What'll you have?" Buffy asked looking a them. She realized she recognized the girl, who's name she was sure was or had been Chanterelle and had been involved with an old friend's, from Hemery High, vampire loving cult.

"Well, okay…" the guy said as he dumped a bunch of change onto the table. He counted the change, amounting to a couple of dollars at most. "What can we get with this?"

"Well . . ." Buffy started.

"Can we get cake?" 'Chanterelle' asked.

"Don't be stupid!" he countered. "We got to eat healthy. Can't have cake." He looked back at Buffy. "Can we get pie?"

"That's better. That's got fruit," 'Chanterelle' agreed.

"We got peach pie. I can't guarantee there's a peach in it . . ." Buffy informed them.

"We shouldn't have blown all our money," Lily said glancing at their tattoos.

"It was worth it," he admitted. He looked back a Buffy. "Check this out." He and 'Chanterelle' held their forearms out and together. Showing Buffy, the tattoos; two halves of a heart, his with 'Lily' in it and hers with 'Rickie'.

"It's nice. I got one myself," Buffy admitted as she showed them the triquetra tattoo on the inside of her wrist. It was a reminder of the family she had left behind."

Rickie smiled. "Then you understand the point of it all."

Buffy nodded. "Yeah."

"Hey . . . do I know you?" Lily asked looking up at Buffy for the first time.

"I don't think so," Buffy lied.

"Really? Where're you from?" Lily questioned.

"I'll get your pie," Buffy answered as she walked off, Lily watching her. When she reached the swinging door to the kitchen, she stopped by another waitress. "Can you cover my station for a while? I'm not feeling great."

The waitress nodded as Buffy looked briefly at Rickie and Lily who were kissing and then headed out the back door.

Buffy's Apartment

Buffy sat on her bed, a half opened can of spaghetti-o's and a can opener in her hands. Her gaze was not on her dinner or the can opener but on the triquetra on her wrist.

September 2, 1998 – Wednesday

Streets of Los Angeles

Buffy walked down the street heading for work, in her waitress uniform, a coat over it. She silently took in the street around her. She passed a man handing out leaflets and then an old woman huddled in the corner, swaying and mumbling, "I'm no one . . . I'm no one . . ."

Gateway High School

"Yes, thank you," Giles said as he hung up the phone. He walked out of his office to find Xander and Willow are looking over their new textbooks. "I have a lead. A friend in Oakland has a sketchy report of a girl fending off a group of vampires a week ago. There's a flight out in an hour."

"And what makes this different from the last nine leads?" Xander wondered.

"Well, I believe there is a meal on this flight," Giles answered. Willow and Xander could hear a bit of defeat in his voice, like he was beginning to believe he wouldn't find Buffy.

"I don't mean to poop the party, it's just, you get hopes all up and then it's a big fat raspberry and I feel bad," Xander informed him.

"It's still good that you're looking, though," Willow added. "You shouldn't give up."

"Oh, yeah. Definitely," Xander agreed.

Giles nodded as he looked at the teenagers. "Well, one must try," he said. "In the meantime, you might want to take a slight vacation from your slaying."

"Hey, we're doing okay." Willow countered. "Except that last guy totally threw off our stats…"

"I just don't want you getting into trouble while I'm away," Giles informed them. "You'll let Prue know about this latest lead?"

Willow nodded. "Yeah I'll call now if you like."

"Please," Giles said. " I should go." He turned and walked out of the library.

"You don't think maybe he'll find her?" Willow asked when the doors had closed behind Giles.

"I think he will find her when she wants to be found," Xander admitted.

Willow nodded knowing Xander was right. When you were a witch like Buffy with a power to teleport anywhere in the world, you could literally stay hidden for as long as you wanted. She stood and walked into Giles office and with a sigh dialed the number she knew by heart.

"Halliwell Manor, Prue speaking," came Prue's voice from the other end of the phone.

"Prue, it's Willow," Willow said with a sigh. "Giles got a new lead in Oakland."

Streets of Los Angeles

Buffy was heading home when she heard someone behind her call out, "Anne? Anne?"

Buffy continued on not truly paying attention. Despite going by her original middle name since she had arrived in Los Angeles, she wasn't used to anyone actually being called by it either.

"Payson?"

Buffy stopped and turned to face the source of the voice, whom she instantly recognized as Lily.

"Don't be mad," Lily informed her. "I won't turn you in or nothing. I guess you don't recognize me."

"Lily?" Buffy said.

"I mean from before," Lily answered. "I was calling myself Chantarelle then. I used to... I was in that cult that worshipped vampires." She rolled her eyes. "So lame, I know…"

"Oh, yeah," Buffy said with a sigh.

"You kind of saved us," Lily continued. "I never thanked you or anything."

"Did you tell anyone who I was?" Buffy wondered. After all she was only seventeen years old. She had lied to her boss and told him she was eighteen. She didn't need the cops busting down her door looking for her since she was technically a runaway.

"Oh, no! Not even Ricky. I was so surprised to see you here…" Lily replied, "…waiting tables . . . but I wouldn't tell. I know how it is when you got to get lost." She pointed to the triquetra on Buffy's wrist. "But that might be a giveaway."

Buffy looked at her wrist and nodded. "Your probably right there. But I needed something to remind me…" She let out a sigh as they fell into step together. "So, you live nearby?" she asked.

"There's a couple of places, they're abandoned and a lot of people stay there," Lily explained. "Ricky knows all those places; he can always find somewhere to crash. He's pretty smart. So how come you came up with Anne?

"Not to many people know it but my birth name was Buffy Anne," Buffy answered. "When I moved in with my cousins I changed my name in honor of my mom, their aunt."

"That's nice…Lily's from a song," Lily explained. "Ricky picked it. I'm always changing anyway. Chantarelle was part of my exotic phase."

Buffy smiled. "It's nice. It's a mushroom."

"It is?" Lily asked in surprise. "That's really embarrassing."

"It's an exotic mushroom, if that's any comfort," Buffy informed her.

"Well, before that I was following this loser Preacher and calling myself Sister Sunshine," Lily inform her. "There's nothing worse than that."

"Nothing springs to mind, it's true . . ." Buffy agreed. "What about at home, what'd they call you?" She was met with silence and she realized that Lily had some troubled history with her parents. "Well, I like Lily."

Lily smiled. "It's cool for now. Hey, do you have any money?"

Buffy stopped, not really sure how to answer. Her metabolism as the Slayer made her food bill high.

"I don't mean that like . . ." Lily said noticing Buffy's hesitation. "Well, I just mean, I know a guy, he's having like a rave kind of thing, in this basement, it's three dollars to get in and you have to know someone. We could go, I could show you if you had . . . 'cause I'm broke."

"I don't think so," Buffy told her. "I kind of want to be alone."

"Well, I didn't mean to bug you . . ." Lily said obviously hurt.

"No, I just mean a lot of people would be too much," Buffy countered apologetically as she dug into her pocket. "Here, why don't you go with Rickie, and I'll see you some time–"

"No, that's okay, forget about it," Lily told her, refusing to take the money.

"No, really, I—" Buffy started just as an old man ploughed through them. "Whoa!"

"That's not very polite," Lily added as the old man looked at them, horror in his eyes.

"Are you okay?" Buffy asked him.

He stared for a moment at them before finally emitting a cracked whisper, "I'm no one . . ."

"What?" Buffy asked in confusion.

The old man looked at them a moment more, then stepped into the street, right in front of an oncoming pickup. Without hesitation, Buffy ran right into the street and pushed the old man out of the way.

The truck slammed into her, sending her flying back and hitting the ground hard.

Lily rushed over to Buffy, who was just getting up. "Are you okay?" she questioned as the driver got out of his truck and rushed over to them.

"Jeez, I didn't see you!" the driver said apologetically.

"Maybe you shouldn't move . . ." Lily informed Buffy, who was standing up, albeit shakily.

"Yeah, you should lie down," the driver agreed. He looked at the assembling crowd. "Somebody call an ambulance!"

"It's okay . . ." she informed Lily and the driver, her unease rising. "I have to go . . ." She took off, running down the street.

"You sure you don't want to sue?" the driver called after Buffy.

Buffy ran around the corner intending to flame out when she ran into the man handing out the flyers that she had passed on her way to work.

"Whoa!" he said as Buffy knocked the flyers out of his hands. "Where are you running to?"

"I'm sorry . . ." Buffy apologized moving to pick up his flyers.

"Maybe I should ask," he said. "Where are you running from?"

Buffy hesitated, then continued picking up the flyers.

"You're pretty new around here," he said as he knelt down to help her. "You've got the look, though."

"The look," Buffy said looking up at him.

"Like you had to grow up way too fast," he told her. "What's your name?"

Buffy handed him the flyers. "Anne," she answered.

"I'm Ken. Go ahead and keep one of these," Ken said as he handed her a flyer. "Don't be shy about stopping by. I guess you're not starving, but we're not just interested in feeding the body. You might find something you're missing."

"I'm all right," Buffy informed him.

"Then why are you here?" Ken wondered. He only got silence for an answer. He looked over at a couple of kids hanging out. "This isn't a good place for a kid to be. You get old fast here. The thing that does it, that drains the life out of them: despair. Kids come here, they got nothing to go home to and this is the last stop for a lot of them. Shouldn't have to be that way."

Buffy looked at the kids as well.

September 3, 1998 – Thursday

Harry's Diner

Buffy was in the middle of her shift as Lily approached her, obviously distraught. "Pays—uh, Anne? Can I talk to you?"

Buffy led Lily over to one side of the diner away from any curious eavesdroppers. "We got kind of a rush here, is there another time—"

"Rickie's gone. I mean, I haven't seen him for more than a day, he's never left for that long, I think something's happened," Lily informed her, concern lacing her voice. "Maybe something's happened."

"Well, did you talk to the police?" Buffy questioned.

Lily shook her head. "Rickie's skipped on his parole, they'd just…"

"Well, you could…" Buffy said. "I don't know, ask around and—"

"Can you help me?" Lily pleaded.

Buffy looked at the distraught young woman for a moment before finally shaking her head. "I can't."

"But, that's who you are and stuff, right?" Lily reminded the Charmed Slayer. "I mean, you help people…and, you know…"

Buffy sighed. "I can't get into this now, I'm sorry…"

"You know how to do stuff..." Lily continued.

"I can't; not anymore…" Buffy said, anger beginning to lace her voice.

"But…" Lily said, her eyes glistening with newly forming tears. "I don't know what to do…"

Buffy looked at the young woman for a long moment debating with herself. "I'm off at four," she informed Lily, though she would rather hoped that Lily had forgotten by the time she got off work.

Halliwell Manor

Prue sat in the living room, working on the household bills. It was at that moment that the doorbell rang causing her head to snap up. She moved quickly and hopefully to the door. She opened it to reveal Giles standing there. "Rupert," she greeted.

"Hello. May I –" Giles asked.

Prue nodded. "Of course." She stepped aside and waved her hand, silently inviting him in. It had long been one of Buffy's rules that her cousin had always been adamant about.

"You still…" he started.

"Old habit, which still is a good habit," Prue admitted as she closed the door behind him. She then turned and led him into the living room.

"I've just come from Oakland." Giles said as he and Prue sat down. .

"Willow called yesterday and said a friend of yours had a lead," Prue said. "Stories about someone fighting vampires."

Giles nodded. "It didn't pan out, I'm afraid."

Prue sighed. "No Buffy."

Giles shook his head. "No vampires. Bunch of school kids in heavy mascara listening to extremely silly music."

"Well, thank you for going," Prue said appreciatively. "Phoebe and I have been taking turns staying at the house and scrying. Hoping that either we'll find her that way or that she'll call, that she'll…need help…"

"Buffy is the most capable child I have ever known," Giles said sympathetically. "She may Be confused, unhappy, but I honestly believe she's in no danger."

"I don't either," Prue agreed. " But it still doesn't keep us from worrying either."

Los Angeles Bloodbank

Buffy and Lily walked into a large, dingy room. Buffy could see dentist chairs in a row at the back, a couple of people sat in them giving blood. Just ahead she saw a woman sitting behind a counter.

"We gave blood a lot of times because you get a few bucks and they have cookies," Lily informed Buffy.

"You're a fan of the sugar rush, aren't you," Buffy joked.

Lily smiled. "It's nice."

The woman behind the counter came around and approached them. "Hi. Are you here to donate blood?" she asked.

"Oh, no. I mean, I can't. Needles," Buffy informed the woman. "They make me woozy. Which is weird, because I don't have a problem with battle axes, but needles...We're looking for a friend."

"Rickie T?" Lily said. "We come in sometimes…"

The woman nodded. "Rickie, sure. He's not here…"

"Has he been in, do you know?" Buffy questioned. "In the last day or so?"

"Let me check the sheet," the woman said as she returned to the counter.

"This'll probably go faster if we split up," Buffy suggested to Lily.

"Can I come with you?" Lily pleaded.

"Okay, when did I lose you on the whole splitting up thing?" Buffy questioned with a look.

"Sorry," Lily apologized.

"We can both check out some of your hangouts and meet later," Buffy informed her. "At my place."

"Okay," Lily agreed.

"Sorry, guys," the woman said as she returned. "He hasn't been here."

"Thanks," Buffy said.

"I'll tell him you were looking . . ." the woman said as Buffy and Lily turned and headed for the door.

Buffy handed a key to the other girl. "This is for the downstairs . . ." she said as the woman watched them, the smile draining from her face.

Condemned Building

Buffy entered the building slowly, looking around at the grimy, torn up place. She made her way from one room to the next. As she stepped over a few sleeping individuals, she made sure none of them were Rickie. None were. As she continued through the darkness a man walking around came to a sudden startling halt upon seeing her.

She made her way through a hole in the wall. She noticed the old man who she had saved from being hit by the pickup truck. He lay there in the corner, obviously dead, an open bottle of drain cleaner beside him.

"Oh goddess…" Buffy said at the sight of him. She moved to his side and grabbed his wrist to take his pulse. She didn't find one and that was when she saw it on his arm, a tattoo…half a heart with the name Lily in the middle. "Rickie."

Buffy's Apartment

Lily sat on Buffy's bed as Buffy walked through the door. "Did you find Rickie?" she questioned. "I thought of, he likes to go to this movie house, you can get in the back—"

"Lily, I think…that he's dead," Buffy said regretfully.

Lily took that in, her eyes quickly brimming with tears. "But…he takes care of me…" she sobbed.

"I'm sorry . . ." Buffy apologized. This was one thing she had always hated about being the Slayer, the people she couldn't save.

"We're going to get a place; his cousin could get him a job at the car wash…" Lily informed her.

"Lily. Something's happening," Buffy said. "The person I found was old, he looked about eighty—"

"Well, that's not Rickie—" Lily countered.

"I saw the tattoo, Lily," Buffy informed her sadly. "Something drained the life out of him. Made him old. I don't know how, but…there could be something out there."

"Do you mean, like a vampire?" Lily asked obviously fearful.

Buffy thought it through and then shook her head. "They wouldn't accelerate the aging process, but maybe…maybe something in his blood…When was the last time you guys gave blood together?"

Lily looked at Buffy confused. "I don't understand…maybe it's not Rickie, okay?"

Buffy sighed. "Lily. You have to deal with this."

"But he didn't do anything wrong, why would—" Lily interjected.

"That's not the point," Buffy told her. "These things happen, you can't close your eyes and hope they'll go away."

"Is it because of you?" Lily asked. "You know about…monsters and stuff, you could have brought this with you…"

"I didn't bring anything with me!" Buffy snapped. "And I didn't ask for you to come to me with your problems. I just wanted to be left alone. If you can't deal with what's happening, don't lay it off on me –" Lily stood up, unable to deal, she headed for the door. "Lily –"

She made no move to stop the young woman, instead she just stood in the middle of the room, fuming. After a moment her anger deflated and as she looked at the door she debated what she should do.

Streets of Los Angeles

Lily rushed down the street, not watching where she was going. She bumped into Ken. "Are you okay?" he asked as Lily shook her head. "Hey, it's okay. Maybe I can help."

"You can't," Lily said afraid of what Buffy had told her. She was afraid that Buffy had been right, that Rickie was dead.

"I know you all think I'm a big square, handing out leaflets about hope," Ken told her. "But hope is a real thing, just like despair. Hope can fill up the part of you that's missing."

"But . . . Rickie . . ." Lily sobbed.

"Rickie? Say, are you Lily?" Ken questioned. "Right, he was talking about you."

"You've seen Rickie?" Lily asked looking at Ken with hope.

Ken smiled. "Well, sure. Rickie's with us now."

"She…it…whatever said he was dead . . ." Lily said glancing back the way she had come.

"Well, someone sure handed you a tall tale," Ken informed her. "Rickie's no more dead than I am. Why don't you come to Family Home. And we'll get you taken care of."

"Okay," Lily agreed as he led her away.

Los Angeles Bloodbank

Buffy appeared in the midst of a swirl of fiery flames in the middle of the bloodbank. She hurried over behind the counter and began looking for anything that would lead her to what happened to Rickie. She found Rickie's file which held a great deal of information, including a comment that simply said: Candidate.

"Candidate for what," Buffy asked herself.

Suddenly the lights flared on as the woman from earlier that day entered the office. She eyed Buffy warily. "What are you doing?" she questioned.

Buffy didn't look up from the file. "Breaking into your office and looking through your private files," she answered. "Candidate for what?"

"I'm calling the police," the woman said as she moved toward the phone.

Buffy grabbed the phone and yanked it from the wall. She looked at several other files. "You've got a whole bunch of candidates here." She looked up at the woman. "I wonder if any of these kids are missing like Rickie. Gosh I'll bet they are."

"You're going to get yourself in a lot of trouble," the woman said.

Buffy put the files down as she turned to face the woman. "I don't want any trouble," she informed her. "I just want to be alone and quiet, you know, with a chair, and a fireplace, and a tea cozy. I'm not even sure what a tea cozy is, but I want one. Instead, I get trouble. Which I am willing to share. What are you doing to these kids?"

"Nothing!" the woman said. "I just…give him names. He likes to know who…I give him the names of the healthy ones."

Buffy watched her steely-eyed. "Give them to who?" she hissed. "Or, wait—give them to whom? Or maybe it's who..."

Family Home

Lily walked into the bare living room wearing a plain shift of a dress and looking a little uncomfortable. "Well, don't you look nice," Ken told her.

"I guess . . ." Lily started.

"Well you don't want to wear your own outfit for the cleansing," Ken told her. "It'll get soaked." He led her toward a door in the back.

"A cleansing is like a baptism, right?" she questioned.

Ken shook his head. "Not quite the same."

"And will I see Rickie after?" Lily wondered.

Ken smiled. "Of course," he informed her. "He's waiting for you. He's very excited." He led her into a small room with a couple of steps leading down to a stone floor. In the center of the floor was a really tiny four by eight fee lap pool filled with black, murky liquid. He led her to the edge of the pool. "We come to this station to wash away the past. Go ahead and kneel. We let the water run over the sin, and the pain, and the uncertainty."

"It looks kind of dirty . . ." Lily admitted.

Ken just smiled as he knelt to her side, waiting.

Lily reached for the water, to splash it on her face.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

"You know, I just looked in the mirror and thought, hey!" Buffy said talking to a huge, brutish looking man. "What's with all the sin? I need to change. I'm dirty, I'm bad…with the sex, and the…envy, and that loud music we kids' listen to nowadays…"

"I suck at undercover," she muttered to her said. "Where's Ken?" she questioned the brutish man, who went to shut the door in her face. She shoved it wide open, sending him tumbling.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Lily reached into the water, her hands gliding in jus as the door behind her and Ken was thrown open.

Ken moved to stand between Lily and Buffy. "This is a private moment, if you could just—"

"How do you make 'em old, Ken?" Buffy questioned. "You feed on youth, what's the deal?"

Ken dropped his façade. "Do you really want to know?" he questioned.

"What's going on?" Lily wondered looking between Ken and Buffy.

"Lily?" Buffy said in surprise.

Lily still had her hand in the water and suddenly she was yanked forward disappearing beneath its surface.

Buffy ran toward Lily, but found Ken in her way. She instantly found that Ken was as strong as she was. She threw all her weight into him and they both fell, wrapped like lovers, into the liquid.

Demonic Demonsion 136

Buffy and Ken came out the other side falling to the floor of a stone chamber, hitting the ground hard. They roll away from each other. "Lily?" she called out. She spotted Lily on the ground, groaning. She looked up and spotted the pool above her head.

"My face . . . Ow, my face . . ." Ken cried as he clutched his head. "Do you have any idea how hard it is to glue that thing on?" he asked as he spun to face Buffy, his human face hanging limply from his hands. "Guards!"

Demons ran toward them from the shadows blocking access to the portal. A cursory glance revealed their faces to be about as attractive as Ken's. Still not completely on top of what was going on, Buffy nonetheless took action. She scrambled toward Lily, helping her up. "Lily! Come on!"

Ken grabbed a cudgel off one of the guards and slowly headed after the girls.

Buffy dragged Lily down the corridor. "We got to find another exit, there's gotta be..." she started as they reached a ledge that overlooked what looked like a cross between a prison camp and a factory. There were humans doing demeaning, backbreaking labor. They noticed that everyone was wearing the exact same dress, regardless of gender, as Lily.

The Charmed Slayer looked up at the huge concrete pillars, and saw people that had been hung up to die for crimes of one kind or another. She also saw molten metal running along in gutters into metal vats.

Searchlights at either end constantly sweep over the prisoners.

Buffy took it all in as Ken stepped up behind her. "Welcome to my world," he said. "I hope you like it. You're never leaving." He then smashed the cudgel across her face knocking her to the ground and out cold.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Buffy looked around the cell she had woken in. She spotted Lily sitting with her back to the wall, terror on her face. She saw that there was an older man, at least sixty something years old as well as a decaying corpse. "Lily…?" she said as she sat up.

"I always knew I would come here…" Lily said. "Sooner or later…I knew I belonged here…"

"Where?" Buffy wondered.

Lily looked up at Buffy. "Hell."

"This…isn't Hell…" Buffy informed her.

"Isn't it?" Ken said as he paced outside the cell, grinning at the girls. "What is Hell, but the total absence of Hope? The substance, the tactile proof of despair? You're right, Lily. This is where you've been heading all your life. You come from nothing, to become nothing."

"Don't listen to him…" Buffy countered, too weak and bewildered to present much of an argument.

"Just like Rickie," Ken finished.

"Rickie…" Lily said softly.

"He forgot you," Ken informed her. "It took a long time he remembered your name years after he'd forgotten his own. But in the end…"

"Years?" Lily said, obviously confused. "But…"

"Time here moves more quickly than in your dimension," Ken informed them. "A hundred long years will pass here - on Earth, just a day."

"So, you work us till we're too old, then spit us back out," Buffy said.

"Very good," Ken grinned. "You see, Lily, you'll die of old age before anyone wonders where you went. Not that anyone will. That's why we chose you."

"You didn't choose me," Buffy countered.

"No, but I know you, 'Anne'," Ken countered with a smirk. "So afraid, so pathetically determined to run away from whatever you used to be. To disappear. Congratulations. You got your wish."

Buffy glared at him, hating him, hating the truth of his words.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Buffy was thrown to the ground by a couple of the demon guards as a third addressed a cluster of seven prisoners, including Lily and Buffy. She stood, slightly shaky.

"You work, and you live," a demon said. "That is all. You do not complain, or laugh, or do anything besides work. Whatever you thought, whatever you were, does not matter. You are no one now, you mean nothing." He approached the first prisoner, a boy of eighteen. "Who are you?"

"Aaron…" the boy answered, clearly terrified.

The guard swung his club with deadly speed and smashed the boy to the ground.

The demon moved to Lily, who was the second prisoner in line. "Who are you?"

"No one," Lily answered.

The demon smiled as he moved to the next prisoner in line. "Who are you?"

"No one," the third prisoner answered.

And on it goes till the demon finally reaches Buffy. "Who are you?"

Buffy smiled. "I'm Payson Patricia Halliwell. But you can call me Buffy. I'm the Charmed Slayer. And you are…?"

The demon swung his club at Buffy, who grabbed his arm and broke it at the elbow. She grabbed his club and continued its arc to hit the demon right in the chin. He flew back, unconscious. Two other demons rushed her as a fireball formed in her hand. She bludgeoned the first one with the club. The second one got the fireball to the face. It was all over in a matter of seconds.

Everyone looked at Buffy, stunned. She turned to them, giving them a smile. "Anyone who's not having fun, follow me," she said. She headed off with the prisoners following.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

"There's no way we can get there without meeting new people," Buffy said looking up at the ledge that led to the portal where two guards stood. "Okay, Lily," she said as she turned toward the young woman, who stood with her and the prisoners in the shadows out of sight. "When those guards leave, and they will, you take everyone and get up there. Fast and quiet. Anybody else wants to come along, fine, but you don't stop for anything. Clear?"

"You're leaving me? But…" Lily started.

Buffy smiled. "Lily, you can handle this. Because I say so," she said softly and comfortingly. She noticed demons approaching at a run. "Ooh, we've gone public. Go, get them out."

Lily started to lead the others out before turning back to Buffy. "I'm sorry I said this was your fault before."

"This can wait," Buffy told her.

"Well – in case we die –" Lily started.

"Go!" Buffy ordered with a tone of authority.

Lily nodded and headed off with the group.

Buffy the turned and ran out into the main chamber. "Not yet. Not yet," she said as she continued on with the demons on her heels. "Here's good," she informed herself when she reached the middle of the chamber.

Never slowing, she grabbed a pole and swung around it into a demon, planting her feet in his face. She dropped on the second one and took him out just as quickly. She smirked. "Didn't I say I was Charmed!" she reminded the demons as a fireball formed in her hand.

It was at that moment that alarms sounded through out the factory. Guards turned looking for what the trouble was. They spotted her just as the searchlights landed on her, waiting for the fun.

The first demon that approached her got a fireball to the face, the second a kick to the chest. Above Buffy on the balcony Lily and the other prisoners were using her distraction to proceed toward the exit portal. Buffy threw two more fireballs taking out the next two guards that were approaching her.

"Humans don't fight back," Ken said as he and a demon watched what was going on. "Humans don't fight back! That's how this works!" Buffy was proving him wrong. He looked to the guard. "Get down there!"

The guard dispatched himself toward Buffy as Ken watched. Then he began to realize that the Charmed Slayer was just a distraction and he took off toward the exit portal.

Buffy smirked as she vanquished another demon with a fireball. She looked up and saw a demon diving for her. She flung another fireball at him and sent him rocketing backwards and crashing into a wall behind him with a resounding thud.

"Demons: not that bright," Buffy said.

"One of you fights…and you all die!" Ken cried as Buffy looked up and saw him with Lily a knife to her throat. He shoved Lily roughly aside, focusing on the Charmed Slayer. He pointed the knife at her. "That…was not permitted."

"Yeah, but it was fun," Buffy countered.

"You've got guts. I think I'd like to split you open and play with them," Ken told her. "Let everyone know, this is the price of rebell—"

Lily meekly shoved him off the ledge and he fell to the ground with a splat.

Buffy let out a chuckle as she disappeared in a swirl of fiery flames. She reappeared next to Lily. They hurried down the tunnel to the room with the exit portal.

They found a portcullis was cutting off access to the portal. The prisoners stood in front of it as they joined them.

"They'll be coming," Lily told Buffy.

"They will," Buffy agreed. "Everyone grab hold. I've never tried doing seven before." With the exception of Lily everyone looked at her as if she was crazy.

Lily had seen Buffy disappear and reappear just moments earlier so she understood instantly what Buffy intended. "Do it," she said as she took Buffy's hand. "Trust her."

The others linked hands and then the entire group disappeared in a swirl of fiery flames and reappeared on the otherside of the portcullis.

Ken rans up to the portcullis frowning as everyone helped each other up through the portal.

Buffy approached him smiling, "Never ever mess with the Charmed Slayer," she informed him as a fireball formed in her hand.

"You…ruined…" Ken started as as Buffy threw the fireball, vanquishing him.

Buffy turned to find Lily was the only one left to have yet go through the portal. She hoisted the young woman up and climbed up through the portal herself.

Family Home

Lily helped Buffy out of the portal as their fellow rescuees left. She looked back at the pool. "What do we do about—" She didn't get to finish what she was saying as the portal flashed and then disappeared leaving only smooth cold stone behind in its wake.

"It's closed. It's gone," Buffy informed Lily.

September 4, 1998 – Friday

Buffy's Apartment

"Let me give you the tour," Buffy said showing Lily around her apartment. She had decided it was time that she returned home. "This concludes our tour."

"It's really nice," Lily admitted.

"The bathroom works a good part of the time," Buffy informed her. "Don't bother to flip the mattress 'cause it doesn't get any better."

"I never had a place, you know, that I wasn't sharing," Lily informed her as she looked around.

"Well, it's paid up through the next three weeks," Buffy said as she pulled her waitress uniform from the closet and threw it on the bed. "Now I talked to Mitch at the diner and he said you could start on Thursday. He's kind of, well, repulsive…but he won't give you a hard time. I'll be checking up on you, see how you're doing."

Lily sat on the bed and picked up the uniform. "I'm not great at taking care of myself," she admitted.

"It gets easier. Takes practice," Buffy told Lily as Lily's eyes lit up.

"Hey…" Lily said holding up Buffy's name tag. "Can I be Anne?" she asked hopeful as Buffy smiled.

"Sure, why not," Buffy agreed.

Lily looked at the uniform. "I don't think I'll fit in this."

"You could wear it as a hat…" Buffy quipped.

Halliwell Manor

Prue was in the kitchen, putting away some freshly washed pots. Phoebe was upstairs once again scrying for Buffy. It was at that moment that the doorbell rang.

Prue's snapped up and looked anxiously in the direction of the front door. She walked out of the kitchen and toward the front door, wiping her hands on a dishtowel. Something made her pause, some instinct. She tossed the towel on the dining room table and moved more slowly to the foyer. To the door.

Prue slowly opened the door to find Buffy standing there. "Phoebe!" she called out. "Drop that crystal and get down here!" She pulled her cousin into her arms, and hugged her tightly.

Phoebe came down the stairs. "What?" Then she saw who had been at the door. She ran to her sister and cousin and threw her arms around Buffy, happy to finally have Buffy home.