The SUV zipped along the coastal highway, in and out of traffic, narrowly missing several cars as Buffy maneuvered the Jeep Cherokee with little skill as Willow clutched the handrails and Gunn strapped himself into the seatbelt he’d scoffed at earlier.

“This is just typical,” Buffy griped. “I’m gone twenty-four hours and stuff happens.”

“It’s not her fault, I’m sure,” Willow said, easing into her seat as Buffy returned to her own lane and steadied their course.

Buffy grunted in reply.

“We’ll get her, don’t worry,” Gunn assured her.

Buffy glanced at him in the rearview mirror. “You didn’t need to come with us. I can handle this.”

Gunn grinned at her in spite of her tone. “Yeah, but I’ve always wanted to see Southern California. I’ve never been outside LA.”

Buffy huffed and returned her semi-concentration to the road.

Willow eyed her friend as they left the Los Angeles city limits. “Buffy, why didn’t you tell me about Spike?”

Buffy froze for a moment, but she’d known this was coming. Maybe because I have shame? she said to herself. “I—I don’t know, Will. I guess because Spike figures the reason the chip doesn’t connect me as human is because I came back wrong. Like I’m some sorta demon or something. And thinking that…just makes everything that much harder.”

Willow’s eyes cast downward. “You didn’t come back wrong, Buffy. You’re still you.”

“Yeah,” Buffy said without much feeling.

“You need to talk to me, Buffy. This is Willow you’re talking to. I’m your friend. I know I haven’t been on top of my game lately, in the witch realm or in the friend one, but I’m still your friend. And now I’m hearing all this stuff from Cordelia. Cordelia! And I know that what I--we--did, bringing you back, taking you out of…heaven,” she stumbled over the word, “that was the most awful thing a friend can do, but I’m sorry!”

Buffy’s fingers tightened on the wheel then relaxed. She spared a glance at the redhead seated next to her. “Willow, it’s okay. Chances are…I wasn’t there anyway.”

The two girls fell into an uncomfortable silence, both staring at the road ahead of them, ignoring the sparkle of the ocean to their right. Gunn wisely kept his mouth shut.

“What are you going to do when we get home?” Willow asked after a long while.

“Rescue Dawn, kill the bathrobe battalion, save the day,” Buffy told her. “Not necessarily in that order.”

“Spike’s the only one left, if Dawn, Xander and Anya are all kidnapped,” Willow reminded her.

“Angel’ll be there tonight, sun’ll be down in a few hours,” Gunn chimed in from the backseat. “Cordy and the rest’ll come too, I’m sure of it.”

Spike and Angel back in the same town, Buffy thought. Oh…joy.

*~*~*

Spike bolted up the front walk of the Summers house and opened the front door, accustomed to just entering the house when he felt like it, now that his invitation had been reinstated so many months earlier. The fact that he was sleeping with the mistress of the house didn’t hurt, either.

“Vixen!” he called, his voice booming throughout the house, and tossing down the old army blanket that had shielded him from the sun on his sprint over there. “Time to ditch the old ladies and have some fun!”

There was no answer, which surprised him mainly because Harris always had a fairly lame retort to offer. Spike glanced into the living room from his spot in the entry hall and noticed that the television was off. Now that was unusual for a Xander-babysitting afternoon. The boy had an umbilical cord that went from him to Anya to the telly.

“Dawn? Come out now…I brought dice, thought I could teach you a little 3-Man while big sis is outta town, not that she bothered to let me know she was going, much less to that city, where that vampire happens to live,” he grumbled, mumbling the last part as he walked down the hall, glancing into the dining room as he went.

“Not like I shouldn’t be let in on these things. I’m a bleedin’ part of the bleedin’ group, aren’t I? Christ, I’m the patriarch! Not to mention that I’m the closest things she’s had to real passion in her life since…well, ever…but does she even do me the common courtesy of a phone call? No. Rotten bitch doesn’t know what she’s got with me and…” He gasped, rounding the corner into the kitchen, taking in the site of dripping vanilla ice cream all over the counter and floor, and tons of ice cream toppings scattered about the place. “Bloody hell.”

He turned on his heel and headed for the stairs. “Dawn!” he called. “Ok. So. The happy couple got a little kinky and sent Dawn to the movies. The happy couple are upstairs, covered in Magic Shell, doing some sort of frozen fornication. The happy couple decided to make with the humpies and are going to be dead when I find them,” he muttered menacingly, trying to make himself feel better even as a weight dropped into his stomach.

“Dawn! Harris! Anya!” he called, taking the stairs two at a time. Nothing. He flew into Buffy’s room, then into the witches’, then finally into Dawn’s. There were a few pieces of clothing scattered on the bed, but nothing too out of the ordinary. “Christ,” he growled, and flew back down the stairs.

Pacing in the foyer he glanced at his watch. He’d told Willow he’d stop by right at sunset, which was rapidly approaching. Another hour or so and it’d be pitch outside. Maybe they’d gone out somewhere, not thinking he’d stop by so early. But that didn’t explain the mess, which even a twerp like Xander wouldn’t leave behind. Spike walked back into the kitchen and looked around. Picking up the container or Edy’s Mint Chip he noted that the ice cream was all but melted in the pint. It had been out for awhile then.

And there was something else…the trace of a scent. He could smell Dawn here…she always smelled like raspberry. Some lotion/bath soap combination she always used. And there was Buffy here. Wild spice and honey lilted in the air, more faint, but still present. An tinged with these two familiar scents was...sewer.

He lifted his arm and sniffed his jacket. It wasn’t him.

Something else had been here. Something else had taken Dawn. Maybe Harris and the demon. And the town heroine was AWOL for the time being.

Spike hurried back down the hall, his stride long and confident, snatched the blanket back off the couch and headed out, on the hunt.

*~*~*

Buffy screeched the Jeep to a halt in the driveway of her home, not taking time to even turn the car off or shut the door. She dashed up the front walk and burst into the house, leaving Gunn and Willow scrambling to follow her. “Dawn!” she hollered. “Dawn! Xander!” she cried, running from room to room. “Anya?!”

She reached the kitchen just as Willow and Gunn ran through the front door. Buffy came to a halt and the two ran up behind her. “Oh no…Xander let her have ice cream for dinner again…” Willow moaned.

Buffy shook her head. “No…” She walked in and picked up the Edy’s pint. “Melted. Completely. This has been here for hours.” Sticking a finger in a glop of foamy, melted ice cream that was pooled on the island she grimaced. “And it’s warm. Even melted ice cream holds its temperature for a while, right?” she asked them. Willow half-nodded. “It’s been hours.”

Willow squeezed her arm. “We’ll find her. We know where she is.”

Buffy stared at her for a moment. “Right. Let’s get some weapons. I just wanted to check the house first, maybe we could have headed them off.”

The trio headed down the hall and into the living room where Buffy flipped open the lid to her trunk. “Take what you want. Big stuff’s upstairs.”

“Got an ax? I’m partial to ‘em,” Gunn asked her.

She nodded and he followed her up the stairs and into her bedroom. Opening her closet revealed a rod filled with hung clothes, but when parted down the middle, as Buffy did now, the wares behind it were much less typical of a twenty-year-old woman. Gunn raised an eyebrow but said nothing as he dipped past a variety of leather pants and grabbed both an ax and a sickle. “Mind if I borrow these?”

Buffy reached in a strapped on a crossbow. “You’re a guest in my house. Whatever I can get you,” she quipped.

*~*~*

“They’re coming back,” Dawn whispered frantically to Xander, wincing as she twisted her wrist and the ropes cut into her flesh even more deeply.

Xander took a deep breath and swallowed, then tried to grin. “It’ll be okay, Dawnie. I’m sure Spike figured out by now that we’re not at the house.”

“What if he didn’t show up?” Anya hissed back.

“He’d show up. It was for me. We’re friends,” Dawn told her, but lacked confidence.

One of the demon approached, standing regally before them. “Our people went to deliver the message of your captivity to the Slayer…and she was not to be found. It seems she left town in a rather big hurry. I wonder,” he said, leaning in closely to look into Dawn’s eyes, “what would have made her run off so quickly if she doesn’t know about you three?”

“I—I don’t know,” Dawn told him, panic creeping into her voice. Looking into the blackness of the hood she saw nothing…and that was almost scarier than any face she could imagine.

The head cocked to the left. “No? Now, why don’t I believe you? It makes one wonder. You have mystical friends. And the little witch and the blonde vampire are missing from this group. Wherever could they be?”

“Like we’d tell you, even if we did know,” Xander told him bravely.

“So the witch and the vampire have also deserted you,” the demon clucked. “Pity, for you, anyway.” He backed up and returned to his two companions. “She is returning to the Hellmouth. We watched her, at that hotel. She, the witch and another companion left hours ago. They will go to the house first, looking for the girl. Go there. Make sure she finds this place,” he ordered a troop of vampires.

The vampires nodded and shuffled off.

“What kind of demons are you?” Anya asked, interested. “I used to be a demon and I’ve never seen your kind.”

The three figures in robes turned to her. “You? You were once a demon? But you’re mortal…how did this happen?”

Anya rolled her eyes in disgust. “Lose a little amulet just one time…”

They nodded, appreciatively. “We are mages from the Demna Plane. We are called the Teplir.”

“Yeah, so?” Xander asked snidely. “What do you want with Buffy?”

One of the demons stepped forward. “The extraction is not complete. She was pulled out of our plane by mighty witches. We are here to reclaim what is ours and to smite those who dared defile our offering.”

“Blah blah blah, blah-bladdity blah,” Xander mimicked.

“Xander!” Dawn hissed.

“No! What the heck does that mean? Buffy’s never been on a plane!” Xander continued.

“She was in our dimension, brought to us through a mighty portal opened by the hellgoddess. She came to us,” the demon said, stepping back.

The captives were suddenly very quiet.

“You mean…when Buffy jumped through the portal…she died…she wasn’t…she was in…” Dawn stammered.

“She came to us,” the demon repeated, and turning to his companions, they walked away.

Outside, high up on a tower of crates, peering in through a broken window, a figure listened intently. Grounding out a cigarette he jumped to the ground and sprinted off into the night.

*~*~*

“We’re going to the Bronze first,” Buffy told Willow and Gunn as they loaded up, “take a look around. There are a ton of warehouses down there, so we’ll split up and take them one at a time.”

“No need,” a voice came from behind. “I can take you there.”

The trio turned. “Spike,” Buffy said, her voice flat.

Spike’s eyes ticked to hers and she saw the irritation there. “I’ve seen them. They’re fine, just holed up for the moment.” His gazed moved to the weapons each of them carried. “Guess you know somethin’ about this.”

“I was attacked, in LA…vamps and a couple of these guys in robes.”

“Same lot I saw at the warehouse,” Spike told her.

“So this is Spike,” Gunn said, assessing the vampire in front of him.

Spike glanced at him and ignored him. “There was more, Buffy…they said some things I think you should know about,” he said more softly.

“It can wait, Spike,” Buffy sighed. “First priority is to get them back.”

“Yeah, but this is something you, in particular, will be interested in.”

“We don’t have time,” Buffy insisted, trying to push past him.

Spike rolled his eyes and grabbed her shoulders, looking into her eyes. “You need to know.”

Buffy stared at him, painfully aware that both Willow and Gunn were standing next to them, taking all of this in.

Willow took a step towards them. “Buffy, maybe we should listen to him…it might help us know what we’re fighting,” she said softly.

Buffy stared at her friend, then swallowed and nodded. Slowly she reached up and pulled Spike’s hands off her body. “Fine, of course…what did they say?”

Spike’s eyes moved from hers to sweep over Willow and Gunn. He stepped back. “I think it’s something you might want to hear in private.”

Buffy huffed. “I’m losing patience. Either tell me what’s the big hubbub or let us go. My sister and my friends are in danger,” she snapped.

“Look, don’t lose your temper with me, sweetie. I’m just the bloody messenger, trying to do you a favor!” Spike cried angrily. “Robed guys were making with the threatening talk to your brat friends about where you’d been and why they need you back so badly.”

Buffy stilled. “Yeah, I know. They mentioned something about that to me in LA,” she admitted.

“Well now they’re sayin’ you jumped through that portal, but you didn’t go to heaven, you went to their dimension. And now they need you back,” Spike told her, shoving a hand through his hair and pacing the hall.

“So your sis is just the bait,” Gunn surmised. “They’re going to jump you when we get there and try to take you back to their dimension.”

Buffy almost smiled. “Such the original plan.” She sighed and held a hand to her forehead, wearily. “Well, no time like the now. Ready?”

Spike watched her for a moment. “Also said they meant to make the witches pay, the ones who brought you back. They stole you from them. Seems they don’t quite know who these witches are though.”

“They’re going to make us pay?” Willow squeaked.

“No one’s paying, except them,” Buffy assured her. “Let’s go.”

They headed out, walking quickly through the now dark streets of Sunnydale. Willow and Spike took the lead, followed by Buffy and Gunn, all heavily armed.

“We haven’t spent time in a warehouse since you came to town,” Willow said to Spike, almost nostalgically. “Which one is it?”

“Makes you all long for the past, eh? Days where I was terrifying and always trying to kill you? Yeah," he smiled to himself, "glory days." He pointed ahead of them. "They’re in the Brice warehouse, south of the Bronze, looked like three demons and a mess of vamps. The niblet, Harris and demon-girl are there, tied to chairs, but unharmed for the most part.” He pulled out a cigarette and lit it, dragging on it heavily.

“You know that’ll kill you,” Gunn told him.

Spike glanced at him sideways as he exhaled. “Who the hell are you now?”

Willow intervened. “This is Gunn. Gunn, this is Spike. Gunn works with Angel in LA,” she explained.

Spike’s eyebrows shot up. “You work with the poof, eh? Hats off to you.”

Gunn smirked. “And you’re Spike. The vampire with the chip that can’t hurt humans except for the one girl who can kick your ass six ways from Sunday.”

Now Spike stopped dead in the street. He looked to Buffy, surprise and a little hurt in his eyes, but said nothing. Instead he swung his duster and walked even more quickly to the warehouse. After a few feet he stopped and whirled around to face his three companions. “Where is my sire, anyway? Not here, fighting at your side?” he sneered at Buffy.

Buffy cocked an eyebrow. “It was daylight when we left,” she pointed out, refusing to let him get to her.

“I managed to be out and about, checking in on little sis and getting you the info you needed,” he told her.

Buffy rolled her eyes. “Actually, Spike, Cordelia had a vision,” she said, testily, stopping to face him. “That’s how we know where to look for them. And the demons we’re looking for attacked me in LA, so your info isn’t that much a surprise to me anyway.” She stepped up and fingered the collar on his coat. “Once again, like with your mid-eighties-wannabe-a-member-of-The-Clash-wear…you’re behind the times.” She spun on her heel and walked away.

Willow and Gunn exchanged a glance and followed her. Spike stood in the street for a moment before letting out a stream of curses and reluctantly following them.

They neared the warehouse and Spike pointed out the location where he had spied from earlier that evening. Buffy climbed up to see what was going on and popped back down a moment later, landing nimbly in front of her friends. “Six vamps in there now, no signs of the demon guys. Dawn, Xander and Anya are tied to chairs in the middle of the room, but it doesn’t look like there’s a lot of access to the warehouse except for the big double doors down there,” she said, pointing, “ and then a loading dock on the other side.”

Gunn nodded. “Where do you want us?”

Buffy thought quickly. "Gunn, you and I will take the door here, Spike, you and Willow head around back and make sure there’s no one else lurking around. Take them out if there are. Six vamps shouldn’t be too much of a problem. But I’d like to know where the demons are.”

The group nodded and headed out on their mission.

Chapter Nine: Leap of Faith
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