Part 19

Buffy glanced around her with a feeling of dread. She knew this place. The wind whipped through her hair, blowing the long strands across her face. The sky was dark all around her. She looked down and saw she was standing on the crudely built metal platform. She was alone. She turned to look around her, and saw the demon-man behind her, holding a knife that was covered with blood.

"Where is she?" Buffy asked.

"She will be here soon, and this time I will get it right." He said pleasantly, with a mild smile.

"Is that her blood?"

He held the knife up between them and the smile left his face. His eyes turned black and blinked strangely. "This blood is tainted. That will change too." He smiled evilly. "This time we will all receive our just reward."

Buffy sat up with a gasp. She was in her room, alone.

*****

Giles woke to the blare of the alarm clock. He reached his arm over to the bedside table to smack the button, but hit only bare wood. Where was that dratted radio? He opened his blurred eyes and quickly realized he was not in his apartment. A slender arm reached across his bare chest and the annoying buzzing noise stopped. Soft hair tickled his chest and chin as Anya laid her head down on his shoulder and stroked his arm with her hand.

"You stayed." She smiled into his chest. "You've always gone home before."

"Um. Yes, I was rather. worn out last night."

"Hmm. Me too." She lifted her head to kiss him softly. "This is nice."

Giles couldn't argue with that statement, so he told his internal schoolmaster to sod off. Being late for work once in a blue moon was not going to cause the world to end, even if that world was on the Hellmouth. He contented himself with returning her kiss. After a while she lifted her head and looked at him warmly.

"What is it?"

"You're very handsome in the morning. You don't look rumply at all." She frowned slightly. "As a matter of fact, you never look rumply. Why is that?"

She never failed to amuse him. Conversations with her tended to go in unexpected and uncharted directions. "Proper application of starch?" He speculated.

She made a face. "Ew, starch."

"What's wrong with starch?"

"It just made me think of a wish I once granted a woman from Michigan. She had four children and her husband insisted that she starch all of his shirts and iron them every morning. Finally one day he told her he was leaving her for his secretary, whom he was flying to Hawaii for a vacation. She summoned me and wished that fifty cans of the stuff be shoved up his."

"Enough!" Giles held his hand up. "I can't bear to think about it."

"It was pretty gruesome. In some ways it was even worse than the exploding head."

"Anya," he shook his head, "I know that you have learned to have more compassion for people. How can you continue to be a vengeance demon?"

"I can't stop."

"Surely you can call D'Hoffryn and get him to release you."

Anya sat up, pulling the sheet up to cover herself. "I can't."

"Are you afraid of what he will do."

She shook her head. "No! I just..."

"I'm afraid I don't understand." Now he sat up, anger showing in the set of his jaw. "Perhaps the problem is that you don't want to."

"Giles, please... I can't tell you anything and I can't do anything to get out from under this."

He turned to sit on the edge of the bed and found his trousers. "Yet you somehow managed before." He pulled the pants on angrily. "I would think that you would trust me by now to be able to help you out in supernatural matters."

She just sat and looked at him helplessly. "Giles, please don't go. Don't leave me when you're angry like this."

He sighed and sat on the bed beside her. "I am angry, but I'm not leaving you. I need to go home for some fresh clothes, and I will see you later at the store." He finished buttoning his shirt, then put him arm around her and kissed her forehead. "Perhaps we can discuss this then."

After he left, Anya reached down to sadly finger the pendant hanging around her neck.

*****

Willow and Buffy walked into The Magic Box together to find Anya alone, cleaning furiously. "Hi, Anya." Buffy called. "The shop's hasn't even been open a week. I didn't think you were due for a spring cleaning yet."

Anya continued dusting her sparkling shelves. "I find this activity to be therapeutic when I'm experiencing anger or frustration."

"Did you get into a fight with Xander?" Willow asked.

"No Willow. We're still getting along just fine. Sorry to disappoint you."

"I didn't mean..."

"I'm really not even upset with a man in this instance, even though one brought this on." She laid down her dust rag and picked up a broom to attack her baseboards. "How is it that they can make you think and want things that you didn't even know you thought you needed?"

Buffy and Willow exchanged confused glances. Buffy cleared her throat. "Anya, if you didn't mind, we thought we might see if we could do some studying to see what these new monsters have in common. Now that Willow's back we may be able to come up with something..."

"More concrete." Giles voice reached them from the doorway. He moved down to join the girls. "I was having similar thoughts myself."

"Well, good luck with that." Anya called over. "My reference library is severely limited, ever since Willow sucked out all the words. I'm still waiting for replacements."

Willow was amazed. "Anya, are you saying that the words never went back into the books?"

Giles cleared his throat. "Apparently they are still a part of you."

"Wow, Will." Buffy gave her an admiring look. "You're a walking magic reference library."

"Exactly." Giles pointed out. "So why don't we sit down and see what we can find out."

"O... Okay." Willow looked apprehensive, but sat down with Buffy and Giles. Anya continued to clean.

"Anya, I'm sure you could contribute to this as well." Giles invited her to join them.

"I'm agitated Giles, and I doubt that sitting down next to you right now is going to help with that."

"Very well. Just continue with whatever it is that you're doing."

"Fine, I will."

"Fine."

Again, Willow and Buffy exchanged a look. "OK." Willow began, "What have we got?"

Buffy and Giles outlined what they knew about Doc and his powers, plus the Ghora Demon, the dragon, the Leviathan, and the gangs of Fyarl demons and vampires. Finally Buffy noted the sudden drop in demonic activity.

"This worries me." Giles noted.

"Yes." Willow agreed. "It's like the calm before the storm."

"And there's one other thing." Buffy added. "I had a dream last night." She immediately had their attention, and proceeded to describe the dream in as much detail as she could.

"This time..." Giles mused. "He repeated that phrase 'This time'."

"I think he's going to try to re-open the hell dimension." Buffy stated. Everybody nodded. "And he's going to use Dawn again. He tried to take her with the Fyarl demons, then he sent the vampires to try and kill William and me. He was probably trying to get us out of the way so that he could try to take her again."

Giles frowned. "There is a problem with the theory." He lifted his head and looked around the table. "The timing of the event was crucial. Remember, we were trying to delay Glory, knowing that if we were successful she would miss her chance."

Willow nodded. "That's right. We did stop Glory, but we didn't know about Doc."

"If he's a time traveler, couldn't he just go back to change things?" Buffy speculated.

"No Buffy." Willow's voice was certain. "He can go back and change some of the things he did himself, but he can't change what anybody else did. You were still there to jump in Dawn's place, and Glory was still stopped. He can't be in two places at one time."

"Why not?"

"It's against the physical laws. If you have the exact same entity present in two forms at the same time..."

"They cease to exist." Giles finished.

"Then how can he travel through time without that happening to him?" She turned to Anya. "Do you know?"

"Yes." Anya replied. "A time wizard just pops back into the same space that he was in before. It's a special power they have. If he goes back in time there isn't suddenly two of him, just the one. But he keeps all the memories."

"I see." Buffy said. "Then he can't pop back and show up at a different place from where he was. He would be on the platform and I would still throw him off."

"Exactly." Anya nodded. "And we still have the question as to how he was able to teleport those other things through time." Anya walked over to the table and sat beside Giles.

"You're sure he couldn't manage it?" Giles questioned. "You also said that Willow wouldn't be able to teleport, but she eventually did."

"Only after I had absorbed enough magical energy." Willow told them. "Could he have boosted his powers in the same way?

Anya shrugged. "Maybe, but where would he have gotten that much power? Those are very large, nasty monsters."

"Maybe it was from me." Willow said quietly. "When I went all uber-witch last spring I was throwing magic around like confetti. I had to recharge a few times. He could have drained some off of me."

"Yes, Willow." Giles leaned forward. "It was after that happened that the creatures started appearing. Then perhaps at some point he went back and planted the Ghora using a power boost from Glory, hoping to kill Spike before the big event."

"Why would he want to kill Spike?" Buffy asked. "Spike failed to stop him, remember? Why would he try to go to so much trouble to get him out of the way?"

"I don't know, but there must be something we're missing."

"And why does he want Dawn?" Buffy wanted to know.

"What do you mean?" Willow asked. "She's the Key."

"But she isn't now." Giles added. "And if he travels back to that night when Buffy died, Dawn is already there."

"So now we're back at square one." Buffy mumbled. "What is he doing?"

"What is his reward?" Anya asked. They turned to look at her. "He said 'we will receive our just rewards'. If we find out what his reward is, then maybe we can figure out what he wants to do to get it."

Buffy considered this for a moment. "So maybe he had his own selfish purposes for opening the dimensions that went beyond what Glory wanted."

"He can't travel across dimensions." Anya informed them. Again everybody turned to stare at her. "I can, but he can't." She announced proudly. "If he wanted to reach a certain dimension for some reason, he would need to use a rift to enter it."

"Then it stands to reason," Giles added, "that once in, he would need a method to get back out."

Buffy straightened, excited. "That's it. He's not just trying to open the hell dimensions. Maybe Glory brought him here. We stopped her and now he's stuck, so he's trying to get home!"

"That takes care of the what and the why." Anya stated. "Now we just have to figure out the how."

Part 20

Buffy arrived at the door of William's apartment. It was Saturday, and they had a date to meet Willow and Xander to pick out costumes for the Halloween dance on Thursday. This was the first time Buffy had been here and she felt strangely nervous. In older times she would have just barged in on him unannounced. Somehow busting through the door seemed inappropriate now. She raised her knuckles to knock, but the door opened before she could make contact.

"Hi." She said.

"Come in." He stood aside to let her pass. "You're early." He was wearing a pair of jeans. His hair was damp and he had a towel draped around his neck.

"I wasn't sure if I had the right place. I never pictured you in an apartment." She looked around. His place was very nice. The furnishings were modern, but comfortable looking. One entire wall was nothing but shelves that were filled with books.

"Just give me a minute to finish getting ready." He turned to walk toward what she assumed was his bedroom. "Make yourself comfortable. I'd tell you to get something out of the fridge, but I don't think what I have would suit your palate."

"That's OK." She called to him. "I'm fine." But he was gone behind a closed door. She wandered over to the shelves, curious about his reading habits. He had quite an eclectic collection, with everything from classics to thrillers. They were in alphabetical order by author. She smiled. Her own books were strewn around her house. She knew there were at least three paperbacks under her bed and the only hardcover books she owned were from the year and a half she attended Sunnydale U. She looked at some of the author's names: Chekov, Clancy, Crichton, and several others she was unfamiliar with.

He re-entered the room and stepped up behind her. "I don't even know you." She said.

"You know some parts of me."

She ran her hand over the spines of the books. "I don't know this part. It's new."

"No it's not. I just don't try to hide it anymore."

She moved down the shelves and looked at some more of the books. "I don't see any Nietzsche."

"That philosophical clap trap was always Angel's bag. It bores me to tears."

"I never really understood it myself." She admitted, turning to face him.

"You would. You just have to wade through the language."

"Maybe sometime you could show me."

"Maybe..." He studied her quietly for a moment, then stepped back. "But for now, we have more important fish to fry. Namely, costumes." He gestured toward the door. "After you."

She glanced at him coyly as she passed. "You're not going to be able to avoid me forever, you know."

"I wouldn't call it avoiding." He leaned over to open the door for her. "I call it looking out for your best interests."

She stopped short at that, then turned to glare at him. "Who are you to decide what's best for me?"

He raised his hands, as if to ward off her anger. "I just meant."

"It's not like I'm a starry eyed teenager anymore!" She continued, as if he hadn't spoken. "And it's not like I haven't learned from my mistakes. Believe me, I have learned lifetimes worth of lessons from my past screw- ups."

"Buffy, I just don't think that you and I."

"The last vampire I was involved with killed some of my friends, after he fell in love with me. And do you know what?" She barely stopped for breath. "I forgave him. God help me, I just let it slide."

"Well, you did stab him with."

"Then I let him convince me that we had no future. Now you tell me, what kind of a future do I have anyway? Huh? I could go out there and die any day. Hell, I'm even getting good at it! So what does it matter that I'll get old and that you won't? Who's to say I'll get the chance to get old?"

"You don't have to."

"And you want me to have normal? I've tried that out. I don't know why I ever thought that 'normal' would work for me. Normal guys get killed following me around. Normal guys have normal jobs and want normal wives to give them normal kids. Now look at me. Do I seem remotely normal to you?" She poked him in the chest. "What makes you think I would ever be happy with that? Everyone goes around saying."

He grasped her by her shoulders and kissed her. All of the tension magically drained out of her body. His hands moved up to hold her head gently as they explored each other's mouths and faces, rediscovering the taste and feel of one another. Her arms crept around his waist and up his back as she pressed herself closer to him. Finally, reluctantly, he dropped his hands and stepped back. He looked at her warily, as if expecting her to hit him in the nose or kick him. Instead, she just gazed at him softly.

"Why did you do that?" She asked.

"Had to shut you up somehow." He cocked his head toward the still-open doorway. "We've got places to go, people to see."

"That's right." She said. "I forgot." She stepped into the hall.

"Buffy." He stopped her. "You're right, you're not a normal girl. You're special."

He stepped into the hall to join her, pulling the door shut behind them. They walked to the elevator in companionable silence.

*****

Much later Buffy, William, Xander and Willow exited Mr. Kitten's Kostumes. Xander carried one bag and William held two. Neither bag was his. "I don't understand how we can spend three bloody hours shopping around for these ridiculous get-ups, and I still couldn't find anything!"

Willow patted him on the back. "You were just being too picky."

"Picky? Me?!"

"You got to admit, William, that you did turn your nose up at everything they showed you." Xander offered.

"Everything they showed me had bleedin' tights! There's got to be a shop around here that has something that isn't all nancy-boy."

"We went to all four costume shops in Sunnydale." Buffy reminded him. "Xander found his the first place we went."

"Well he doesn't have to wear pantyhose now, does he?"

Xander clapped an arm around William's shoulders. "Just got lucky with this one." Xander lifted his bag. "I even get a cool little attachment."

"I know you don't want to, but you really might just have to do the vampire thing." Buffy told him. "You could wear leather and then just 'Grrr'."

"No thank you. The fact that I spent over a century terrorizing people is not something I want to parade around in front of my students."

Buffy threw her hands up. "You're impossible!"

"Nothing new there." Willow said dryly. William glared at her. Buffy tried to hide her own smirk.

"I don't really take to this shopping business, anyway." William complained. "Back in my day people came by, you told them what you wanted, they took your measurements, and brought everything back to you a few weeks later. I can't believe that humans these days enjoy all this tramping around and scavenging."

"Let me clue you in on that buddy." Xander leaned toward him. "This is not a 'human thing'. This is a 'woman thing'. And if you think these two are bad, you should see Anya in action."

Tension filled the group at his words, and an uncomfortable silence followed. "Way to go Alexander Harris." Xander muttered. "Once again with the mouth opening and foot inserting."

"Look," William began. "I'm really, really sorry about that, and."

"Stop it right there." Xander interrupted. "We all screwed up royally last year, and we had the benefit of souls. What happened at The Magic Box was not entirely your fault, or Anya's. I have to take a lot of the blame for hurting her."

"Besides," Willow piped in. "Now you're back and you're all different and everything, and you've paid for our costumes. If I can get away with trying to end the world, we can forgive you for."

"We don't have to come right out and say it, do we?" Buffy asked. She looped her hand through William's bent arm. "I can think of lots better things to talk about, like the weather, or what we want for lunch. Is anyone else starved, because I could eat a."

"Holy cow." Xander said.

"That's a little more than what I had in mind." Buffy told him.

"No, I mean that." Xander pointed up. There was a huge creature flying overhead. Its wings made a sharp snapping sound as they flapped against the wind.

"And that would be Giles' dragon, I suppose." Buffy observed.

"Wow." Willow said. "That's really big."

"I've seen that somewhere before." Xander wrinkled his forehead in concentration. "Where, where.?"

"I think I'd remember that." Buffy said, as she watched the beast circle around the town.

"I've got it!" Xander snapped his fingers. "It was the night you died."

"Which time?"

"On the platform, before you jumped." Xander looked at her. "Don't you remember the things that came through the opening?"

"I was a little preoccupied."

"Me too." Willow said.

"I think my head was buried in bricks." William added.

"Well creatures came through the rift from some of the other dimensions before Buffy jumped and closed the hole." He pointed at the dragon, which had turned and was flying away from the town. "That was one of them."

"And now he's back." William said.

Buffy sighed. "That can't be good."