Disclaimer: Joss & Co. owns all these people, demons, creatures, etc. You know the drill.

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Chapter Eleven - Fight or Flight

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"I think that this might work," Giles said, clearly encouraged by the plan he and Tara had worked out. The witch seemed equally heartened.

"It's going to require a lot of control, but between the three of us I think we should be able to manage it."

"Four of us," Dawn said flatly. At Giles' raised eyebrow, she urged, "I have power, Giles. I brought Buffy back...well, I helped...and I can help here, too. I'm not gonna just sit here!"

"She's right," Tara spoke up quietly. "Three is a better mystical number, but with Dawn helping the spell has a better chance of holding when...if something happens." Dawn's face fell, and Giles found himself moved to touch Tara's arm with gentle affection and more than a little sorrow.

"I know this isn't the time, but I'm terribly sorry..." he sincerely stated. Tara smiled wanly.

"Thank you, Giles." The smile faded into an apprehensive look. " It's Willow I'm worried about, though. She can't take care of herself right now. What if Buffy and Xander can't find her?"

"What if they can?" Dawn said softly. "Tara...I don't want you to...to..."

"T-to go?" the witch asked with a gentle smile. She hugged the young girl. "I don't want to, Dawn, but it's just...the way things are. The way they have to be." She released the hug, holding Dawn at arm's length, her eyes earnest and pleading. "I need you to do something for me, Dawn. Something really important."

"Okay," the girl swallowed.

"I need you to promise me that you won't let Willow blame herself. She did everything she could, and none of this was her fault. I think...I think she might have a chance to be happy with..."

"Xander," Dawn whispered, not wanting Anya to overhear. Giles shuffled uncomfortably, feeling like it was improper for him to be listening to this and yet unable to look away as Tara nodded sadly.

"If she'll let herself be. If she forgets...you remind her, okay. Remind her I love her, and that this was my choice. Make sure she knows I don't want her to suffer over this. I don't care how many times you have to say it."

"Okay," Dawn said again. "I promise."

"Good," Tara smiled, then jumped at a loud thudding sound. They all turned as one to see the shadows of small creatures propelling themselves against the windows and door of the shop. "Guess we should do this, if we're gonna do this, right?"

"Yes...I'm afraid that our rodent friends are getting a tad impatient," Giles acknowledged a bit anxiously. He did an almost subconscious count of heads and frowned. "Where is Anya?"

Everyone scanned the room, their eyes eventually settling on a decidedly twitchy Amy. The recently deratted witch looked down at her borrowed shoes.

"She left," she whispered.

"She what?" Giles said in disbelief. Amy made a vague hand-gesture.

"Left...pffft...gone."

"Through the tunnels?" Tara asked worriedly. Amy shook her head.

"Not exactly...I kind of...you know..." she said, waving her hand in a sigil that both Tara and Giles recognized. Hearing Giles' groan the witch's head finally snapped up as she finished, "She loves him!"

"Yes. She loves him. Unfortunately, he is a former rabbit that is currently driving his own kind to kill everyone in Sunnydale. Not exactly one of the great romance stories." Giles fretted for a moment, then a loud thump on the door, accompanied by an ominous cracking sound, made up his mind. "There's no more time, we have to do this now. Dawn, are you certain you're up to this?"

"I'm more than up to this. I've been waiting for this my whole life."

"Then let's begin," Giles said, nodding as Amy and Tara began collecting the necessary ingredients with Dawn's help. He looked at the three girls and sighed. Amy had just become human again, Dawn wasn't a true witch, and Tara... *God help us. All of us,* he added in a silent prayer.

**********

"Willow!" Xander screamed again, fighting his way through the crowd.

"Xander, stop!" Buffy cried, but he lurched forward.

"Willow!" he shouted again, ignoring the Slayer as he fought his way through the panicked crowd. Buffy struggled to follow him, but caught the unmistakable buzz of a large gathering of demons and vampires and whirled around with a groan.

"I so don't have time for you guys right now," she said, pulling two vampires off of victims and colliding their heads together.

"Slayer!" a pink and bulbous demon with glowing orange eyes shouted in alarm. Buffy nodded, putting on her fiercest look.

"Yes, that's right! Slayer here! You should really just go..." Buffy said hopefully. The one that shouted charged her first.

"She's mine!" Globular demon shouted.

"Crap!" Buffy cried as a bunch of them set upon her. She saw a few of them pulled backwards, and all of a sudden Spike was at her side.

"I'm here, Buffy!" Spike panted, standing in a defensive position. "Here to rescue you." Buffy gave him a sidelong glare, too busy scanning the crowd for her friends to give him a proper one.

"Here to what me?" she drawled as she casually reached out and pulled a demon off of him without even looking in his direction. She tossed it across the room. Spike returned the favor, twisting the neck of a rather nasty blue thing that was about to grab her from behind.

"Fine, to help you. To keep you from bloody well being killed, which you definitely will if we don't get to work here," Spike's voice was full of urgency, but the Slayer shook her head stubbornly.

"I've got to find Xander," she insisted. Flashes of her nightmares were in her mind, every nerve ending, every instinct screaming that if she couldn't get to him soon it would be too late. Visions of Willow's disfigured face swirled into the insanity she's seen in her friend's eyes, and she almost missed Spike's quiet reply.

"You won't do him any good if you're dead, pet."

"If I don't get to them, Xander's gonna die. Willow...she's not herself, and she'll -"

"You've got to concentrate Buffy. You can't do anything to help them now."

Buffy turned on him in desperate anger.

"No! I don't accept that!" she insisted. Spike shook his head at her, twisting the neck of another demon.

"It's not a matter of accepting it, luv. Look around! We'll be lucky if we get out of this ourselves. Not to mention there's the small matter of the furry rodents."

"Right. How am I supposed to fight them?" Buffy moaned. "I mean, what's next? Squirrels? Hamsters? I'm Buffy the Exterminator now?"

Spike shrugged, kicking off two of the rodents that had latched on to his ankle.

"Don't know, luv. Thought Monty Python made the vicious little buggers up."

"I think I might no someone who knows, and I might just strangle it out of her," Buffy bit off.

"Her?" Spike repeated questioningly.

"Anya is involved in this somehow," Buffy insisted, then her brow knitted. "Though if my vision was right, she's in as much trouble as the rest of us."

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For a heart-stopping moment after she'd materialized, they just stared at each other. Cas' expression was alternating between disbelief and fear, and Anya instinctively knew that it was fear not of, but for her. It gave her hope. She looked around, trying to project disaffected curiosity.

"So this is what it's like," Anya said finally. "I thought it would be...I dunno...neater. More festive maybe. More silver for sure...though maybe she's just trying to stand out. Is that it?"

"You shouldn't be here," he said brusquely, acknowledging her presence if not her words.

"Why not?" Anya asked innocently. "Does it bother you? Having me so close? Remembering what we had-"

"Your presence defiles the temple," he said stubbornly.

"It looks more like a cave than a temple, but it's nice. You know, I never saw it the last time...I wonder if it looks very different..."

"The last time?" Cas echoed, and Anya nodded, remembering.

"When I defeated your oh-so-wonderful goddess. Of course, it wasn't really my doing..."

********

A MILLENNIUM AGO...

"All is lost," Ola sniffed. "We will die."

"Not if you do like I've been telling you and make a damn wish!"

"What good would it do? I've lost my husband...he has chosen his goddess over me. What more is there for me now?"

"If you want your stupid husband back, wish for that!" Anyanka said crankily as something that sounded like a drum began beating irregularly. In shock she realized it was the rabbits jumping en masse against the door, trying to knock it open.

"But he has chosen her!" Ola wailed. "He doesn't want me anymore."

"Then wish that he wanted you!" Anyanka said through gritted teeth. A swirling flash of silvery light in a corner of the room caught both of their attention. A figure of a beautiful woman, alternately ephemeral and solid, appeared.

"Ostara!" Ola cried. Anyanka crossed her arms, nodding irritably at the goddess.

"You're here. Great. You can stop this foolishness right now, missy! I`m a vengeance demon, and this...attack...is unacceptable. Make it stop." The last was said with a childlike quiver. Ostara regarded her with scorn

"You stupid girl. You're not a Lower Being, no permanent harm will come to you from these creatures." A rabbit chose that moment to leap onto Anyanka's arm and bite down, causing her to squeal in pain. Ostara smiled. "I never said it wouldn't hurt."

"Oh God," Anyanka cried, giving in to her panic at last. "Get them off of me!"

"Little late to call on the gods, demoness," Ostara chided her. Both women screamed as the rabbits pierced their flesh.

"You bitch," Ola said in a low pained voice. "You horrible, cruel...you don't deserve to be worshipped. You don't care about anyone but yourself..."

"Of course not," Ostara said in mild surprise. "I am a goddess, you are a puny little mortal...I mean, really, do the math."

"I wish you were forgotten, and no longer worshipped, and gone from this earth for a thousand years," Ola finished hotly.

"Done!" Anyanka screamed, just as Ostara screamed, "No!" A moment later she was gone, as if she had never been. Anyanka gave a cry of triumph that turned into a shriek. She glared at Ola.

"You couldn't have wished that the rabbits were gone, too?" she asked as more of the furry rodents jumped onto her shoulder. Tev burst through the doors, his eyes wide with fear and guilt. Anyanka shook her head. "I don't care what he does to you, lady, don't ever even think about it," she ordered before transporting herself away.

*********

"...so you see, I never saw the shrine at all." Anya finished conversationally. Cas was staring at her blankly.

"What you did was unforgivable. Ostara will be avenged."

Anya threw her hands up angrily.

"She's already been avenged. Trust me, if hurting me was the goal, she's scored a home run, or whatever...sports metaphors are confusing and stupid. Why didn't you tell me you were a rabbit?"

Cas visibly twitched, and the blush that crept over his face was the first real reaction Anya had gotten.

"I...it was...kind of embarrassing. And I...I felt like a human. Like a man. With you."

"Really?" Anya asked, a blush creeping over her features. Cas nodded, then his expression hardened.

"It doesn't matter now. Ostara must have her revenge. I am the vessel," Cas said, his tone hollow.

"So that's it? You just use me for sex and toss me aside?"

Cas blinked in shock. Anya resisted the urge to punch her fist in the air. She sensed she had finally broken through the wall that Ostara had placed around his heart.

"No! That wasn't what I-"

"Do you have any idea how that makes me feel? I mean, first Xander says he loves me, but he doesn't, not really, and then you...I really thought that you were...were the one who I could spend the rest of my life with but apparently you were just using me!"

"I...I never..." Cas stammered, before his face went blank again. Anya thought this time she could still see a twinge of feeling in him. "This does not matter. Nothing matters but the goddess which I serve..."

"Uh-huh...you know, this is how I got into this mess in the first place. Woman scorned, thirst for vengeance...except she took it out on your goddess instead of her husband. And I don't have any powers anymore, Cas. I couldn't curse you or Ostara if I tried. The only thing I have is what I know. That you love me. At least, that's what I thought I knew..."

"I do!...I mean...I did...I..." Cas' face reddened as he struggled to reconcile his feelings. He knew he had no choice but to obey his goddess, but his mind was filled with images of Anya, their time together, the way she made him feel...

"Why do you waste time with this mortal child, my servant?" Ostara's voice jangled in irritation, and Cas immediately threw himself down, hiding his face in his trembling hands.

"She entered your temple unbidden, Mistress," he squeaked. "I told her to leave."

"Indeed. And yet she did not. What is the punishment for such defilement?"

"D-death, Mistress," Cas responded, his eyes wide with fear and devotion. Devotion that Anya was rapidly fearing was not to her. She could feel him slipping away from her.

"Go on, then. Kill the unbeliever."

"No," Anya whispered as she saw Cas heading towards her, nothing in his eyes for her anymore. Nothing but the promise of death.

*********

"Willow!" Xander screamed again. He had no idea how she could move so fast through this din. It was like some one of Anya's nightmares had come to life inside the Bronze. Then he saw her, crouched down with her arms tucked over her head, emitting a high keening wail that made him shiver in its otherworldliness. "Stay put, Will. I'm coming."

But he wasn't. He was pretty much running in place, he realized, because a vampire had grabbed onto his collar. Xander gave a terrified shout and ducked, getting his shoulder beneath the attacker in a move Buffy had taught him but he'd never actually used in a real battle. Before he knew it he had flipped the surprised vamp over his shoulder, sending him down into a pile of rabbits that immediately covered him. Xander scanned the group for Willow again, and found her, seeing she was still in the same position. This time he noticed that there were no rabbits anywhere near her, and that the demons and vamps were also steering clear.

"Will," he called again, and her head snapped up. Xander froze in his tracks.

She was smiling. And her eyes were black. He subconsciously stepped back.

"Oh, Xander," she sighed with a giggle. "You came. Isn't this neat?"

"So not the word I would've picked," Xander said, mostly to himself. Willow looked around and laughed again.

"It's all so...fluffy. Like clouds, and marshmallows, and buzzsaws..." She raised her hand and he felt his body flying through the air towards her, landing on top of her with a rush. Instinctively he rolled off of her and she rolled with him, landing on top.

"Will..." he tried again, but she put her finger over his mouth.

"Shhhh!" she said reprovingly. "Words, words, words, all around, biting me, keeping me from dancing...I want to dance."

"Willow?"

"Will you dance with me Xander?"

"I'd like that," Xander said, "Really, but now isn't the-"

"Time," she sighed. "Not the time. Time. Time." She rolled off of him, clutching at her head, and looking nearly herself for a moment, though very upset. "It's in here, Xander. All of it. But it wants out...it's eating me. Eating. Eating its way out. Make it stop!" Without thinking he pulled her into his arms.

"That's why I'm here, Will. I've got the way, but you've got to..." Xander trailed off when she started to struggle in his arms, no longer seeming to recognize him at all.

"No...you want to take her away from me..." Willow's hands fluttered like birds, and Xander winced as he saw the energy channeling off of them. He tried to back away but felt himself somehow held fast.

"Will, don't," he moaned as her hands reached for him. Again he thought he was getting through to her, but then he saw something that made him pale. He knew what she was going to do, and had no idea how to stop it.

A moment later everything was perfectly still.

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