Gunn and Buffy gave Willow and Spike a few minutes to get around to the back of the building. “We go in fast, use surprise to take out as many vamps as we can. Willow will handle getting them free. She’ll go for Xander first, he’ll help do the rest. Try to keep an eye on them if you can, I’ll be too busy,” Buffy whispered low, checking and rechecking the crossbow strapped to her back.

Gunn nodded. “You don’t gotta worry ‘bout me.”

She looked up into his dark eyes, the whites pronounced in the darkness of the alley.

Angel trusted him. She wasn’t concerned.

Her gazed shifted to the sky. The moon was up, casting a familiar, eerie glow over the street. Years of patrolling had made her more comfortable with the night than the day in some ways. And Dawn in trouble…it wasn’t a new situation.

“Six vamps shouldn’t be too hard to take out,” Gunn whispered, bringing Buffy back.

“That’s what we’re hoping for,” Buffy nodded, “but we’ve also got three demons in there,” she reminded him and stood up to glance down the alley. Spike and Willow had rounded the building. “It’s time.”

He nodded and stood beside her, poised, ready for the attack. Taking a breath, Buffy reared back and kicked the door in, allowing Gunn to run in ahead of her. The vampires scrambled to their feet as she let an arrow fly from her crossbow, taking one of them out immediately.

“Buffy!” Dawn cried, joy in her eyes at the sight of her sister.

From the back of the warehouse Spike came charging in as Willow headed directly to their captive friends.

The vampires were on their feet and ready for the battle while the demons moved off to the side, watching, fascinated.

Buffy was busy battling three at a time while Gunn swung his axe in a macabre dance with two more. Willow had Xander’s feet untied and was working on his hands while Dawn and Anya tried to scoot their chairs out of the battlefield. One of the vampires rushed at them and Xander lifted both his legs, kicking out. The force of the kick pushed the vampire to the ground, but also caused his chair to fall backwards. Willow jumped back, out of the way, just in time.

Delivering a roundhouse to one of the vamps Buffy yanked a stake out of her waistband and held it up, at the ready. From behind her came a growl and she whirled, fists up, smashing them into the second vampire’s face, breaking his nose. Blood spurted out as the vamp howled in pain, clutching his face.

“Buffy!” Spike shouted and she spun to face him as he tossed her a long wooden rod. She caught it nimbly and jutted it backward, finding her target. The vampire with the broken nose suffered no longer--but there were more.

Willow had Xander free and he was hurriedly trying to free Dawn while Willow worked on Anya’s ropes.

“Hurry!” Anya complained, watching the demons moving closer to them.

“I’m trying!” Willow shot back as her fingers worked to loosen a particularly tight knot.

“Don’t you people think to bring knives?” Anya asked, straining to look behind her at the witch kneeling on the ground.

“You’re starting to make me wish I had,” Willow said, pointedly, as the ropes dropped away.

The two girls scrambled behind the chairs just as Xander finished untying Dawn. The foursome stood together, surveying the flurry of action that was taking place before them. More vampires were entering the warehouse, three or four at a time, and were surrounding Buffy, Spike and Gunn.

"Stay back,” Willow ordered, turning to Dawn. Then she, Anya and Xander plunged into the fight, picking up whatever was closest as a weapon. Dawn slunk backward and used the chairs to keep herself hidden while still having a birds eye view of the fighting.

To their right Buffy jumped straight into the air and flipped backwards, out of the reach of an oncoming foe and landed back to back with Gunn. “Where are they all coming from?” she shouted to him as she grabbed the arm of a vampire, stopping his punch, and yanked it back behind him.

“My first guess?” Gunn shouted back, ducking the swing of a sword. “Hell.”

“There’s too many!” Xander called to them, taking a hit to the stomach and doubling over as Anya beat his attacker with a wooden plank.

“We need to do something, pet!” Spike shouted as he dusted another just to have two more take its place.

Buffy defended herself as best she could while trying to fully take in the situation. There were more than a dozen vampires, maybe even two dozen. The demons had convened at the side of the room, watching in earnest, but didn’t seem overly concerned with the fight. She bent at the waist, avoiding a punch, and kicked out, knocking her enemy onto his back, then staking him cleanly. Spinning she searched for Dawn and found her cowering behind the chairs she and the others had been tied to.

Suddenly there was a huge crash and several figures ran into the room. Cavalry was here.

Cordelia and Wesley were armed each with crossbows and Angel threw himself into the fight unarmed but for his anger and his fists. No words were spoken as the groups melded together and began to overcome the hoard of vampires.

Cordelia let a crossbow arrow fly, dusting one, then tossed the weapon to Gunn who spun and picked it out of the air. While he reloaded Spike came to his rescue, picking up Gunn’s abandoned ax and using it to take the head of an oncoming foe. Across the room Willow found herself back into a corner.

“No magic, no magic, no magic,” she cursed, panicked, when Angel shouted, “Willow, down!” The trusting witch fell to her knees just as a sword came flying. It took off the head of her attacker and embedded itself cleanly into the wall, mere feet above her head. She shot Angel an appreciative glance but he had already moved on, whipping and whirling with kicks as he wounded the enemy, leaving them down for Cordelia, Xander and Anya to pick off with stakes.

The opponents’ numbers were falling quickly with the new help.

Satisfied, Buffy glanced back at the corner the demons had been standing in and moved to return to the fight. But the demons were gone. She spun, trying vainly to locate them. They had separated, split off, one on each side of the room and one coming down the middle. Coming for her.

No…coming for…

“Dawn!” Buffy shrieked, causing Spike’s head to whip up even as he received a blow to his face. With an angry bellow he grabbed the vampire by his collar, dragging him down as Spike’s knee came up. The vampire let out a strangled sound at the pain and Xander staked him cleanly through the back.

Ignoring the few vampires that were left, Buffy used the long rod in her hand to vault herself up and over the crowd, rolling as she landed and springing to her feet. She met the demons as they rejoined each other, only feet from where Dawn was crouched.

“Buffy!” Willow cried, and tossed a sword end over end. The Slayer caught it easily and brought it up and around, ready to put it to use. From behind the demons the last of the vampire army was dusted. The weary Scoobies walked to where the Slayer stood, guarding her sister.

“You lose,” Buffy growled.

“On the contrary,” the demon in the middle corrected and the three joined hands. “We are here for you. The mortal means nothing to us. And the vampires…merely a distraction, Slayer.”

“What do you want with her?” Spike asked gruffly, coming to the front of the group.

“To take her back to our dimension. We need her,” one of them answered.

“You can’t have her,” Angel snarled, joining them.

Buffy’s eyes were unwavering. She stared at the three robed figures, heatedly. “You have ten seconds to explain to me what you are and what you want,” she told them, “before I make confetti out of those robes…and whatever’s underneath them.”

“They’re Teplir demons, if I’m not mistaken,” Wesley offered tersely, steadying his crossbow. “You jumped through the portal, into their world, but your human body was too weak to make the journey and was dispelled back here, to this dimension. Your soul, however, is strong…and it remained on their plane.”

“How is that possible? I was comfortable, at peace,” Buffy spat, struggling to stay in control. Angel watched her, his eyes smoldering. “Glory was a hellgod…key word being Hell. I would have been tortured, for centuries…right?”

The middle demon spoke. “Your friend is right. Very good…not many on this plane know of the Teplir, or the Demna Plane. I am Entwar. This is Jimnub and Sulfeg,” he said, daring to take a step forward and directed his words to Buffy. “Your soul is blessed…and cursed. The soul of a Slayer, like the essence of the Key, is power concentrate, absolute,” one of the demons began.

“And they thrive on this power,” Wesley finished. “The Teplir use the strength, the energy, of your soul to fuel their existence. They feed off its power as a vampire feeds off your blood. And if I’m not mistaken, you see souls.”

Entwar nodded. “You are correct. The Teplir possess the skill to see souls, they glow brightly in colors only we can see. The brighter the color, the stronger the soul. The Slayer had a strong soul,” he said, turning to Buffy. He moved to Willow. “As do you. You all do,” he moved to Spike, “…except you…and you…” he walked to Angel, “…vampire…It is most interesting to me that you have a soul, and yet you also possess a demon.”

Shrugging, he returned to Buffy. “You were ripped from our world before the extraction of your energy was complete,” he told her, his voice low and raspy. “And we were sent to retrieve you.”

“Too bad you made the trip for nothing,” Buffy snapped.

“I would not say so, Slayer,” he continued, waving an arm. “You have oft complained since your return to this place that you feel off, incomplete…wrong. We have been watching you.”

“You’re sayin’…” Spike said, stepping up. “You’re sayin’ she’s wrong…she came back this way because Red and the goof troop tore her out of your clutches mid-mojo?”

Entwar nodded. “The strongest parts of her essence have the most resistance to the extraction. The most human qualities would have been easiest to take, leaving her strongest powers for last. When you and the mages here performed the spell to bring her back, you brought her back without those energies.”

“She’s all Slayer,” Willow gasped.

“That’s why she’s acting this way! No human components, just Slayer stuff,” Anya said brightly. She turned a beaming smile to a shaky Buffy. “This is good news! You don’t have any emotions because you’re not all human!”

Buffy stared at her.

“At least Buffy has an excuse,” Dawn said pointedly, defending her sister.

Angel and Spike both moved to Buffy at the same time, bumping into each other. Two sets of angry eyes met.

Angel reached Buffy first. “It’s okay, Buffy. We’ll force them to fix this.”

Spike put a hand on her shoulder. “Luv, no worries. I’ll take care of ya.”

Angel tensed and fought the urge to rip Spike’s hand off her shoulder.

Buffy stood, staring blankly at nothing. She’d come back wrong. Captive in a Hell dimension, just as her friends had thought. And now she’d come back wrong.

“You’re saying I don’t have any human emotions…no love, no fear, no warmth…” she whispered. “There’s no part of me that’s Buffy.”

Entwar cocked his head. “You are almost completely the Slayer. Perhaps a small amount of your human soul remains, but that is of no interest to us. We are here for the rest.”

“You’ll never get her,” Wesley spoke up, angrily shoving his way to the front. “You can’t take her unless she comes willingly. That’s one of the stipulations.”

Entwar turned his head to Sulfeg, then Jimnub. “You are correct.”

“Wait, what?” Xander asked.

“The ritual of soul extraction may only be completed by a willing participant. In this case, the Slayer entered our portal freely. We produced a euphoric environment for her to ease the process,” Entwar told them.

“And to keep her happy so her soul wouldn’t fight you,” Angel snarled, lunging at the demon.

Spike caught him and pulled him back. “If you kill them we’ll never figure out how to fix the chit,” he warned, low and mean, clutching Angel’s arm.

Entwar clucked his tongue. “Yes, you are correct. If at any point the soul fights, the process is ended.”

“So you made her believe she was in heaven…” Willow said softly, tears welling in her eyes. “Well take it back! Reverse the spell!” she shouted. Xander moved to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. Willow buried her head in his chest.

“How…how can you even get back to your world?” Dawn asked, clutching Buffy’s arm, supporting her sister. “I’m not the Key anymore. You can’t open the portal.”

“Wrong. Glorificus was banished from our dimension, cast out with no way to return. We have free access to open the portal,” Entwar told her. He and the two demons flanking him suddenly grasped hands and from underneath their robes a bright yellow light began to glow. “Dome shakara, ente buscon!” all three roared and a powerful wind kicked up. Behind them light began to swirl and the ground began to shake. The portal opened.

“She won’t go!” Dawn shrieked, holding onto Buffy as the others scrambled to steady themselves, backing away from the open portal. “She won’t go!”

Angel let out a guttural yell and stood between the portal and Buffy. The demons advanced.

“You can’t take her!” Angel shouted above the din. “You said she has to go willingly, anyone who goes through the portal has to go willingly.”

The demons continued to advance. “And you were right,” Entwar told him. “Your soul is strong…stronger than most any I’ve seen. Perhaps you would like to join us?”

“Not a chance,” he growled.

With their hands still clasped they reached Angel. Together they raised their arms and Angel shot backwards, straight into the portal, and disappeared.

“Angel!” Cordelia screamed.

“No! Wait! How?” Willow cried.

Something in Buffy’s mind snapped. She stared into the pool of swirling light, remembering. Calm. Peace. Sanity. She’d had it once. However briefly, however much of a lie it had been, she’d had it.

The noises behind her began to fall away and soon all that sounded in her head were her own thoughts, her memories. Dawn was tugging on her sleeve; she looked over and stared at her dumbly, unseeing. Turning back to the portal Buffy relived watching Angel pushed in, how the expression on his face had mirrored the one when she’d plunged the sword into his belly, sending him to Hell.

She turned to the left to see tears streaming down Cordelia’s face. Gunn and Wesley were advancing on the demons who moved quickly around Buffy and entered the portal themselves. At the last second Gunn ran to the light and Buffy assumed he too was going to enter the portal. Instead he leapt, landing with a thud on the ground, inches from the doorway. Wrapping a hand around the robe of the last demon, he pulled backwards, stopping its crossover.

Willow and Xander stood with Anya and Spike, all eyes huge and round, fixated on the portal. Only Spike’s were on Buffy’s. He saw when they changed. He recognized the turn, when she went from dumbly mute to angrily obsessed.

Shaking Dawn off her arm, Buffy closed her eyes and pictured herself on the shaky tower, the glowing white and purple light in front of her, chaos all around. “No, Buffy…” she mouthed to herself, and took off running.

“No, Buffy!” Dawn shrieked, grabbing for her sister and missing.

Buffy disappeared into the portal.

Chapter Ten: Making the Pieces Fit
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