Part five

Giles carefully made his way down the stairs into the factory basement. His captors had been 'kind' enough to place a candle at the foot of the steps and another one at the far end of the space. As his eyes adjusted to the gloom he could make out the blackened remains of Spike and Dursilla's possessions. Shattered and charred dolls watched him with empty eyes from the dresser as he made his way across the room. He picked his way through the black on black ruins, passing by the end of the bed.

"Joyce!"

She was hunched in the corner formed by the side of the bed and the wall. As Giles went to her she raised her head, reveling the bite mark on her neck. As he knelt down beside her she shook her head at him and scooted back into the corner. Giles removed the tape from her mouth as gently as possible.

"Be careful. He bit me... I might be dead. I don't know... I feel so sick." She cautioned.

Rupert brushed his hand against he cheek. "You're warm... feverish. Turn around, let me untie you."

Joyce stared at Rupert's bloody face and bound wrists. "They got you too... so this isn't a rescue."

"No it's an escape. Please turn around."

A shiver went through her. "Tell me the truth. I know someone was on their way to meet me and I know the goblin changed into me. What happened?"

Giles went back on his heels and momentarily bowed his head. "Buffy and I went to meet you at the halfway point. I had Buffy ride with it to my flat." Then he went silent.

Joyce shut her eyes and bit her lip. "And?"

"Fifteen minutes later, the leshii appeared at my place. Buffy never arrived."

A hissing exhale came from Joyce's lips and her face contorted in a mother's pain. "Leshii? That's what this thing is called?"

"Yes, an Eastern European entity."

Her eyes opened and an expression of cold hate locked onto her face. "I want it dead." She then turned to allow Giles to unbind her hands.

"I will be.." Giles promised as he unwrapped the tape from her hands.

Once freed, Joyce began to pick at the knot on Rupert's bounds. "Hold still!" She halfway snapped at him.

Rupert paused from scanning the room. "Yes ma'am..."

"What are you looking for?"

"A way out. I can't imagine that Spike and Dursilla would allow themselves to be trapped in their own bedroom. There has to be a back door, so to speak."

"This was Spike's place? What happened, someone smoking in bed?"

"I set fire to it."

Joyce giggled as a bit of gallows humor hit her. "What was it that thing called you, 'Tony the Torch'?"

"I came here the night Jenny was murdered, seeking revenge." Giles said softly, his voice edged with sorrow.

"I'm sorry." She took his hands into hers. "I didn't know the circumstances."

Rupert allowed his hands to rest in her hers. "It's all right, you didn't know. It's the Hellmouth, it has more than enough pain for everyone."

"Sometimes I forget that....."

"Sometimes you have to." Giles slowly withdrew from her grasp and held the knot up toward her. "We have to get out of here."

She nodded and finished uniting the knot. Once free they began to search through the ruins for Spike's emergency exit.

"Give me a hand with this, please." Giles requested as he stood by the heavy chest of drawers.

"What's with these dolls? They give me the creeps." Joyce asked as she grabbed the dresser.

"Drusilla is insane, her madness speaks to her through dolls. These 'voices' have made her quite odd." Giles explained. "Now on 'three' we will drag this thing away from the wall: One.. Two... Three!"

The dresser began to pull away from the wall reveling a jagged hole. "Yes!" Giles exclaimed, punctuating the statement with a jab of the fist. "We need a bit more clearance. Get the candles, I can swing it out a bit more." As Joyce went for the candles, Giles put his shoulder to the dresser and gave it a heave. The dresser teetered a second and one of the burnt front legs snapped from its joint, causing it to tip over with a crash.

"Oh bloody hell! Come on! Quickly!" Giles said a loudly as he dared.

******

"What the fuck was that?" Adam growled as the sound of the crash echoed through the factory.

"Didn't sound good, did it?" Kimmie muttered as she placed the pine boughs on a makeshift altar. "Wan'na go see what those crazy kids are up to this time?"

Adam curled his lip at the suggestion and waved a pine branch at Kimmie. "Why don't you go? I'll finish decorating."

"Because it has to be done right."

The vampire hissed at the slam and tossed the pine onto the pile. "So he's just going to walk over here, lay down and let you barbecue his ass? Bullshit!"

"Just like the old days." Kimmie said with a grin. "I love the smell of cremation in the morning, heh... heh... heh..." The purple light in the leshii's eyes became intense. "So get your dusty ass moving and go get them."

Adam bristled at being ordered around by the leshii but kept his silence. He glared at it for a moment and flashed an obscene gesture before went over to the basement door. "Cocksucker..." He muttered as he unlatched it and started downstairs. He stopped on the first landing, peered into the blackness and came back up. "They've blown out the friggin' candles, can't see shit down there."

"Thought you were 'gifted'. There's a flashlight in his car, go get it, boy."

Adam headed on outside muttering under his breath. "Go get it.. go get it 'boy'. I'll 'boy' it.. As soon as this is over I'm going to kick its ass." He opened the car door, sat down in the driver's seat and began to rummage around. Leaning over he opened the glove box and peered in. "Stupid bitch, bastard, whatever... now where in the hell is that flashlight?

The latch on the passenger door clicked and as he glanced up toward the opening door, a spray of Holy Water hit him in the face. As his skin and eyes began to sizzle he straightened up and arched back into the driver's seat rigid with pain. "Ahhh SHIT!" He screamed as he blindly tried to scramble out of the car.

Before both feet could hit the gravel the point of the stake ripped through his heart.

Wesley held the squirt gun up before his eyes. "Ingenious, Miss Rosenberg. I will have to pass this idea on to the other Watchers."

Buffy stood in Adam's dust and leaned on the car. "One down, one to go. Let's do it."

Cordy took a couple of steps down the street. "I hear something. We got company..."

******

Rupert shielded the candle flame and held it out to Joyce to allow her to relight hers. "There is a definite breeze. We're getting close to an exit."

They walked along for another few paces. "Isn't that a ladder down there?"

"Possibly." Giles answered. "I can't see very well without my glasses. I lost them right after the leshii bit me." He gave a motion toward his blood stained jacket sleeve.

"It bit you?"

"It was a wolf at the time. It also can shift into animal form."

Joyce glance at his arm as she walked beside him. He had not mentioned this before. She had assumed that the blood had come from the gash on his forehead, and all he had said about that was that he had fallen. Then there was a nasty purple bruise on the side of his jaw and his face seemed almost sunburned. He had put up a fight, for Buffy... for her. "Buffy... oh, Buffy..." She silently mouthed her daughter's name as quiet tears began to run down her cheeks.

"It's a storm drain. Here, hold my candle while I open it." Giles turned to Joyce and saw the tears.

Before he could comment she shook her head in response to his sad expression. "I'm okay... just give me the candle and lets get out of here."

He complied and scaled the ladder. The grate over the drain was heavy and positioned to be accessed from the top. Giles pushed and it raised an few inches and came back down with a clang. He twisted his body around and tried again. It was a little better, at least he could control it so there wasn't as much noise. He went up another rung and tried again. Success! The grate flipped backwards into the street. He looked down at Joyce and motioned for her to stay quiet at the bottom of the ladder and then he slowly raised his head through the opening.

A spray of water hit him in the ear and he turned to find a silver and black cross thrust into his face."Get back, creature of the... Mr. Giles?"

"GILES!" Xander yelled as reached down to help him out of the drain.

A voice came from below. "Was that Xander?"

Buffy's jaw dropped, she fell to the ground and looked into the sewer. "Mom!" She reached down and took hold of her mother's hand and helped her up out of the hole. Wordlessly they embraced.

Rupert pulled Wesley aside. "Joyce has been bitten, we have to get her to the hospital."

"You're not looking very well either." Wesley noted. "Look, we destroyed the vampire, Buffy and I can face the leshii. I'll have Cordelia take both of you the...."

"No, it is time for the piper to be paid... in full." Rupert hissed.

Cordelia let out a soft moan and whispered "I want to fly..." She began to walk toward without hesitation toward the open drain. Wesley turned and grabbed her around the waist as her foot began to step into the hole. Tightening his hold he pulled her back and held her close as her mind cleared."It's here. It enjoys sending people plummeting to their deaths." Wesley said. He motioned to the open drain. "Somebody better replace the grate."

Cordy shook her head and blinked as she realized Wesley had her in an embrace. "You saved me, Oh...."

"That is unusual, they are not good at saving people." Kendra stood before them with her throat cut.

"Don't pay attention to it! It is a deceitful liar!" Wesley shouted.

"You call me a liar?" The apparition questioned. It then turned its attention to Buffy who was sprinting toward it. As the Slayer launched into her attack it merely vanished only to reappear behind them as an angry, strikingly beautiful dark haired woman. It twisted an engagement ring from its finger and threw it toward Wesley. "The last straw! This was the last straw! This Watcher nonsense taking precedent over our rehearsal dinner..."

Giles grabbed the sword from Xander's hand.

"Be good or the leshii will take you. That is the truth I say." Grandmother Brownlee cautioned.

And then it was gone.

The group instinctively formed a circle and scanned the deserted street.

Willow gulped and stared back and forth. "Where did it go? Is it still here?"

"Maybe we scared it off?" Xander suggested hopefully.

"Maybe it's just messing with us." Buffy countered.

Most likely the latter instead of the former." Rupert stated. "How did the research go? Did you find out how to destroy it?"

Wesley nervously cleared his throat. "Not a word about it in the reference volumes. We do have a bit to go on, there's what Grandmother told me, cut off its head and sear a cross onto the wound. I also stopped at Holy Trinity and was loaned a cross that had been blessed by Sainted Maksim. The priest did mention one thing, that he had been told that their only weakness is 'their blood wet upon the ground'."

"Then let's make the son of a bitch bleed!" Joyce snapped.

"MOTHER!"

"There!" Cordelia pointed toward the factory entrance. "There it is!"

A wolf sat unconcerned upon the hood of Willy's car not twenty yards from them. It yawned, stretched, then leaped off and trotted into the factory.

Buffy went over to a burned out window and jumped through. "I think it wants to play hide and seek."

"I'm going through the front." Giles muttered as he deliberately walked away from the group.

Xander started off behind Rupert. "I'm going with you."

"I think civilians should sit this one out." Wesley cautioned, grabbing Xander by the arm. Xander twisted his arm free and continued after Rupert. He dug his car keys out of his pocket and offered them to Cordelia. "You and Willow get Mrs. Summers to the hospital."

"No! I will not spend the night not knowing if the person coming through the door is that thing or not" Joyce answered.

Cordy stomped her foot. "It tried to toss me in a sewer! I'm not going either..."

"This is my 'I'm staying too' face!"

Wesley let out an exasperated sigh. "Let's retrieve a few weapons from the boot. But this is against my better judgment." He told them as they headed for the car.

Streetlights and a three quarter moon illuminated the factory floor through the ruined roof. Giles and Xander paused in the entrance and scanned the ruins for any sign of the leshii.

"What's that?" Xander questioned, pointing to the pile of pine which lay on top of a neatly stacked mass of dry wood. "Real Christmasy."

"I have no idea, but offhand it looks like a funeral pyre." Rupert guessed.

"Ah, G-man... we went to Willy's and one of the vamps said this thing and its vamp pal were going to 'turn one and burn one'.... so this campfire scene, maybe, could be..."

Giles finished the thought. "Where I was to die?"

The slamming of a trunk caused them to turn to see the others approaching. Giles and Xander waited for them and together they went through the door.

As they entered the factory the catwalk above them creaked. Apprehensively all looked upward to see Buffy motioning for them to be quiet. She pointed toward a spot in the far corner and indicated that they should split up and head over that direction as she continued from her vantage point. As they complied the catwalk groaned as a weakened support snapped and the whole nine yards came crashing down. Buffy leaped off the falling mass of metal and... vanished.

Willow held up a finger and shook it. "I don't think that was Buffy."

"Where is Buffy?" Joyce whispered.

Drawn by the resounding crash The Slayer came running into the main room. "What happened?" She yelled and was answered with stone faced silence. She came up beside them and asked again. "What?" She looked straight at Willow who backed away.

"Will?"

"The leshii was on the catwalk, in your form." Giles began.

"So now you don't know if I'm Buffy or not. Got it."

Wesley flicked on a flashlight. "We cannot go off alone anymore." He gave Buffy a nervous look. "I'm sorry but I don't know how you can prove to us who you are, so I am going to have to ask you to leave."

Giles went with his gut instinct. "She is Buffy."

From the shadows above the leshii listened and shook its head in amusement. "Heh... heh... heh... No more dickin' around. I know which one is last, but which one first? Eeney, meeney, miney, moe..." It pointed its finger at each one in turn, ending the rhyme with its gaze squarely on Wesley Wyndam-Pryce. "Let the games begin."

"Let's split into two groups for the initial search." Giles suggested. "But we do need to lure it outside."

"May I make a small tactless observation?" Wesley whispered. "This thing is angry at you and Mrs. Summers. Have Buffy go with the two of you and.."

"My Mom's not bait!" Buffy snapped.

"The rest of us will stay in earshot." Wesley added. "We have to force its hand."

Rupert put his hand on Buffy's shoulder. "Wesley is correct, if you Mother agrees.."

"I agree!" Joyce said with a force that surprised herself. "We can't just stand here and wait on it to pop up."

Buffy gave the two Watcher's an angry look. "This isn't my Mother's fight."

Joyce pointed at the bite mark on her neck. "It is now."

"Can we get moving?" Xander interjected. "The hair just went up on the back of my neck."

With a roar a flaming fir tree erupted beside them, the burning heat and light causing them to scatter away from each other. Their eyes closed from the intensity of the brightness and they turned their backs on the inferno. Then as suddenly as it had appeared it was gone replaced again by the gloom. Wesley blinked as his eyes adjusted to the half light and turned to face... himself.

In unison both Wesley and the leshii grabbed their crosses and shoved them toward each other.

"Get back.."

"Get back.."

The Wesley's began to circle each other. Giles raised his sword halfway, they were identical, down to the last hair how could he tell?

"What is the Councils Address?" He barked.

"1808 Thomas Way." They answered.

Giles raised his sword higher. "What is the first duty of a Watcher?"

Again in one voice the two answered. "To guide and instruct the Slayer."

"Who was that woman?" Cordelia yelled. "The one that was so P.O.'ed?"

"Linda Holbrook, we were engaged." They both responded.

Buffy came forward with the knife. "Cut yourselves, bleed on the ground."

Both held their hand out for the knife.

"That didn't work... now what?" She muttered to Giles.

"Cut them on the hand." Rupert ordered.

Buffy put the point of the dagger on the left hand Wesley's palm and made a slice in the skin. It responded with a jerk and a hissing inhale of pain. As she cut the right hand Wesley he followed suit, down to the last sound. They both turned their hands to the side and let a few drops of blood splatter onto the ground.

Rupert moved within strike range. "What is the purpose of the pyre?"

"I do not know." The one on the left answered.

"To burn you." The other said.

"Different, finally." Rupert thought. He fixed his gaze on the right hand Wesley. It seemed to be approaching panic, but the other acted the same way. No clue there, but it's answer had raised Rupert's suspicions.

The Wesley returned Rupert's penetrating stare and knew he was suspect. He gave his head a nod and stood rigidly before Giles. "Kill me and then you will know."

Rupert's face was a mask as he considered this turn of events. "This one mentioned burning, but that was information gleaned at Willy's. And he could not see the leshii having the first glimmer of the concept of noble sacrifice." His eyes darted to the one on the left, he raised the sword and took a step toward it.

The other Wesley froze. "It is a liar in words and action. Don't believe the charade! Its a trick... that is the leshii."

Buffy positioned herself behind the left hand Wesley. He raised his hands at her. "No Buffy! Please listen..."

Then Cordelia saw it. She let out a half scream and tackled the left hand Wesley out from between Buffy and Giles. As they hit the ground she pointed at the right hand Wesley and screamed out one word. "SHOES!"

Rupert looked down at the other Wesley's shoes - they were on the wrong feet! He whirled the sword around and made contact with the creature's shoulder as it sprung toward him in the form of a wolf. Buffy came down into its ribs with the knife and all three tumbled into a bloody struggling pile on the floor. Wesley rolled out from under Cordy and removed the Blessed cross from his inner jacket pocket. With a fast "Thank you, excuse me." he started across the room to join the fray.

The wolf sprung free and took a leap toward the open basement door. Wesley sidestepped into its path and held out the cross. The creature went to flame and slammed into the human whirling him around and down onto his hands and knees. The words of the priest came back to him. "Their blood on the ground." Wesley crawled over to the creature's blood trail and laid the cross into splatter - it hissed, it bubbled.

At the basement door the leshii reformed as a man. It let out a screech and threw its hands into the air. Then it was a flame in which could be seen swirling images of a wolf, a raven, Joyce, a goblin. Everything which it had or could become flashed in a heartbeat. With a final roar the burning fir appeared, but this time the branches were being consumed. A crack like thunder echoed through the factory and the leshii was reduced to a pile of smoldering ashes.

Willow frowned and took a couple of steps toward the pile. "Is it dead, finally?"

Xander went up to the heap and gave it a shove with the point of his shoe. "Could be..."

Giles and Buffy sat, out of breath on the floor. "I got bit. Will I need a rabies shot?" Buffy muttered to him holding up her little finger.

Giles examined the nip. "Historically a person has to be more concerned over the possibility of the transfer of venom or a curse from an otherworldly creature's saliva. The don't usually carry viruses or bacteria." He answered.

"Thanks for the happy thoughts, I knew I could count on you for warm fuzzies." She deadpanned back.

Joyce can over and held out her hands to both of them to help them to their feet. "We did it."

"No, Wesley did it..." Giles noted as he stood up. "And Cordelia... she saw the shoes."

"Yeah, leave it to her to notice somebody's shoes in the middle of a sword fight." Buffy tried to work up a sneer but instead smiled as she watched Cordy and Wesley getting hugs and back-slaps from Xander and Willow.

Wesley and the others came over. "Now will you two go to the hospital?" He asked Giles and Joyce.

"Yes, yes... I'll drive us over. We can concoct a plausible story on the way. Buffy should come with us also and get her injury cleaned."

"Your wounded?" Wesley's eyes widened at the information.

Joyce looked panicked as she stared at he daughter.

Buffy looked down at her pinkie and then at her Mom - bitten and bruised up by Adam. Then she considered Rupert's appearance - cut up, beaten and major wolf bit. "Ah.. you guys go on. I don't need one of the hospital's $45 Band-Aids...." Then she blushed and stuck her hand in her pocket.

Xander laughed. "Want me to carry you to the car, or you think you can make it on your own?"

Cordelia started for the door. "Let's get out of here. I'm riding in the front seat with Wesley."

Giles walked beside Wesley to the cars. "Good job." He simply told the young man. "Very good job."

As they arrived at their cars they stopped and looked skyward as a helicopter buzzed over the industrial park shining a spotlight across the buildings.

"Whoa, we better boogie before we have to explain being here to the cops." Xander said as he opened the car door.

The Watchers nodded in simultaneous agreement as they ushered one and all into the vehicles and quickly left the area.

Willow looked out the back window as the chopper made a closer sweep. "Doesn't the Sunnydale police have a silver helicopter?" She questioned. "This one's just black."

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