"This is Hell?" Buffy said.

"No, it's the anteroom of the Queen Mother's summer palace. Watch where you step."

Buffy put her foot--well, Drusilla's foot--on something squishy, and she heard a moan. There was some kind of tubing underfoot--tubing that trailed from the moaning man's abdomen....

"Come on!" said Millefleurs.

"Where are we going?" Buffy asked.

"We are going to deliver you before the stolen throne of the creature that started all this, and I hope you dispel him beyond the nethermost regions of this place."

"You want me to stake this demon?"

"This demon is an upstart of no breeding whatever who has put the sons of Hell to the most menial of tasks, purely to set himself free on earth. We cannot stand against him, because he holds his master's soul while Eygion heals. You, though, may be able to do it."

"This body is part demon."

"Not the body. The soul, but you aren't the one, are you?"

"How did you know?"

"It's a demon thing. Here we are." Millefleurs led Buffy through the side door of a brazen hall and up to the throne at the end of it. "Maris!" he called. "Lord Maris, I have brought you the Slayer!"

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"Sire?"

"Don't call me that." Angel shifted his face against Giles's chest. "You're not a vampire any more. You're not... what I did to you, it's made right. Leave me alone."

"It's not right, either. Only your Slayer is suffering what I did. Is that what you want?"

"Buffy a vampire? God, that would mean...."

"No," Giles whispered. "We have to undo this."

"It should be her choice."

"Do I not also have a choice, Angelus? I choose not to inflict such a fate on another, ever. I will have my own body back."

"Dru, you're human. You can take care of Spike, and Buffy can...."

"No," said Giles.

"Why? I mean, I love you, too...."

"If you love me, let Buffy be. It's not about who loves whom, Angel. It's about her life. Let her live her life."

"It's all right," Drusilla said. "I only came to tell you, we're going to get her. We wanted you to know before we opened the gate."

"What gate?"

"The gate to Hell."

"In my office?"

Drusilla's face crumpled, and she set a hand against each of her temples. From the other room Buffy's voice could be heard, wailing. The door opened and Anya stuck her head in.

"Dru?" she said.

"She's indisposed," Angel said. "What was it?"

"Cordelia had a vision. She says Maris has Buffy. He wants to make a trade."

*****
Part 27:

Wesley closed the bedroom door behind him.

"They're gone," he said. Angel's hand was inside Giles's shirt, moving as if on a woman's breast, although Giles seemed to be unconcious again.

"You didn't go with them?" Angel asked. "He wanted to trade for both the 'Watchers.' The others didn't want to take the chance."

"So what are you supposed to be doing?"

"Actually I'm meant to look after the two of you." Wes climbed up beside Giles and felt his forehead. "He's cold," he said.

"Yeah. Seems like he's awake when he's hot, but then he gets the chills and he's out again."

"Angel, what are you going to do about him when this is over?"

"I don't know. I wish I believed he'd still love me. Hell, I wish I believed I'll still love him."

"You don't have to stop loving," Wesley told him. "You're... allowed."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Riley led the way, with the demonet on his shoulder whispering directions.

"This is not good," Anya said.

"Why not?" Willow asked.

"This is a really random portion of hell. Almost anything can happen. Maybe that's why an incubus can act like a demon lord and get away with it. Anyway, be...."

They almost bumped into Cordelia, who was clutching her head again.

"Are you all right?" Willow asked.

"Fine, thank you," she said in an English accent. "Oh. Oh dear."

Ahead of them Spike pointed at Buffy's chest.

"Cordelia," the blond answered.

"This is getting complicated," Tara said.

"Come on," said Riley. "Let's get on with it."

They marched up the slime covered steps of a palace of brass and into the great hall where Maris sat between pits of burning coals stoked by underdemons.

"Yes!" the incubus exulted. "Now, which of you is the Watcher?"

"You don't know?" asked Xander. "You went to all this trouble for revenge and you don't know which one you're after?"

"Revenge? What revenge? I need the body of a renegade Watcher! The spell I found to let a demon escape hell will only work with such a one!"

"You don't want revenge?" Drusilla's body stepped out of the shadows wearing one of Buffy's incredulous expressions.

"Well, I want revenge!" squawked the demonet. He threw something to the ground, and there was a puff of smoke, and then someone was there who hadn't been before. "He stole my pages!" squawked the little demon, pointing at Maris.

Anya was laughing.

"Turanka?" she said.

"Damn straight, girlfriend," said the vengeance demon. She pointed at the throne and where Maris had been there was suddenly a book.

"Not bad," observed her former colleague.

"Glad you liked it. Now I'd get out of here if I were you. Ceiling's coming down." And Turanka was gone.

Buffy looked up. "Not again," she said as cracks appeared in the brazen dome and dust began to filter down.

"You can say that again," said Spike, and started for the front door, only to have it collapse in front of him.

"Bloody hell! Dru, where are you going?" Buffy was running in the wrong direction, toward the altar, where she scooped up the book and held it over a firepit.

"Put us back!" she screeched. "Put us back the way we were, or I swear I'll toss you in!"

"If you die here," said Drusilla in Buffy's body, "you die for all time. Put us back!"

The book twisted open of its own accord.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Giles twisted in Angel's arms.

"Be still," Angel whispered. "They'll be back soon."

"He's closed the gate," Giles whispered. "Maris closed their gate. They can't get back."

"Well," said Wesley, "we'll just see about that. Come on, Angel. I'll need your help."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"Shit," said Willow.

"We just lost our way out," explained Tara.

"That doesn't mean I'm not going to take this bag of demon bones with us," Buffy growled. "Put us back, now!"

Tara reached into the brazier and picked up a hot coal with her bare hand.

"Excuse me?" said Willow.

"Look on me, demon," Tara said to the book. "You know me. For this cause was I sent to bide on earth, for your undoing in this hour. Yet will I yield, and let you bide here as you are, if you restore these women to their own. Choose, for patience is not the virtue I nurture."

Buffy's body and Cordelia's fell to the ground, and Drusilla's swayed. She looked around her.

"Well enough," she said in her familiar singsong as she stepped back.

"Noooo!" screeched the tiny demon. He sprang to her shoulder and ran down her arm, pulling the heavy tome from her hands, and he and it both fell backwards into the brazier and disappeared.

Chunks of ceiling started to fall. Tara turned to Willow.

"Go," she said, "while there's still time, and know that I will always be with you."

"I love you," Willow said, her face illumined by the glow from Tara's halo reflected from her feathery white wings.

"Go," said Tara as she faded from sight.

"That way!" Spike said, and urged them toward the side door where Angel was grinning as Drusilla ran into his arms. "Move, Red!" He shoved Willow toward the door, scooped up Cordelia and ran, guiding the barely recovered Buffy as the rest outdistanced them. "All?" he said to Angel at the door, and when his Sire nodded, they both stepped through.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"I'm back," Angel said to Giles. "Can I lie down?"

"It's your bed."

"Uh-oh."

"Please do. Come here, Angel."

"You sure?"

"I told you before you left. The spell only started it. We choose whether to end it."

"Are you still sure?"

"Of course, only..." he looked at his groin. "Only I don't think that thing is going to work for about a year."

"That would be a shame," Angel said, wrapping himself around Giles.

"It would, indeed," said the Watcher.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

It was nearly four AM when Spike finally climbed to the roof.

"Coming in, pet?" he called. "It'll be light soon."

"I have to go, Spike."

"No, Dru...."

"I have to go. I made a promise, and I can't... he's in my head, telling me what to do to her... I have to go."

"Then let me come with you."

"You should stay with your friends. You need them, and they need you."

"I need you. I love you."

"I love you, too," she said. "That's why I have to go." She kissed him, and walked toward the stairs.

"Oh, and Spike? Tell the Slayer that tattoo was a really bad idea." She waved and was gone. Spike stood at the edge of the roof and watched as she came out of the building, and waved when she turned for a last look just before she passed from view. He wiped his eyes before he went back inside. It wouldn't do to let the pouf see him crying. He'd just think about something else.

Wait a minute. What tattoo? Mischief in his eyes, Spike headed down the stairs.

Whew! Finally,
THE END!