The first thing that impressed upon his mind was the damp chill upon his cheek. Without conscious thought Rupert clenched his hands, digging his fingers down, into and through the loose sand and pebbles, drawing it into his fists. As if in a dream where everything is reduced to slow motion, he turned his face toward the movement and opened his eyes. The fog in his brain had not lifted enough for him to be sure it that was his hand or someone else's scratching out a trench in the coarse rocky surface. Giles could see the motion and feel the grit rub against his fingers, but it was not connecting in his mind. He raised his hand and let a fistful of sand pour downward. The colors... the colors were not right. Everything was in shades of gray, the sand, the rocks, the flesh of his hand.

Then it all came back to him with a vengeance.

"My God!" He lurched up onto his knees and stared around. Buffy, Joyce, Ethan and Everett still lay where they had fallen around him. Rupert went back down on his hands and knees and crawled between the two prone women.

"Buffy? Joyce?" He called to them as he reached out and shook each in turn. "Wake up! Oh dear God... wake up... please. Buffy's eyes shot open and in the same instant her fist made contact with whomever or whatever it was hovering over her. Rupert's glasses went flying as the force of the blow knocked him backward into the sand.

"Oh Giles! Oh, I'm sorry." Buffy began as she realized what she had done.

"Never mind me... ch-ch-heck on your mother." Giles sputtered as he worked his jaw back and forth. He reached over and retrieved his glasses and replaced them on his face.

"Mom, Mom?" Buffy whispered as she patted Joyce on the side of the face. "Come on Mom..."

Joyce moaned and began to come around.

"Buffy... Help me with her." Rupert said as he knelt down.

"Buffy? Rupert? What hap... where?" Joyce's voice faded out as her daughter and Giles pulled her into a sitting position.

Rupert tossed his head toward the other two who were beginning to stir. "We are now trapped within the Soul Gem and we have to get away from them before they awaken."

"You.. are.. not.. going anywhere." Everett spit out each word as he scrambled to his feet. He lurched over to a large boulder and leaned on it to steady himself. His hand went into his jacket and he pulled out a handgun. "We are staying together, you are going to help me find my wife and then you are getting us all out of here."

"You're insane." Rupert snarled as he stood and took a step toward Daniels.

Ethan groaned and slowly pulled himself to his feet between the two. He blinked a couple of times and gave his head a hard shake to clear the cobwebs. His eyes darted back and forth as it began to register that he was in the line of fire - a spot he did not want to in.

"Put the gun down." Rupert ordered.

Ethan slid off to the side. "He's right Mr. Daniels.... please let's not do anything rash."

"Rash?" Joyce interjected. "I think we're past rash and into 'dead'!" Her voice cracked. "We're dead!"

Daniels shook his head. "We're not dead!"

"But we will be as soon as some one pulls the plug." Ethan noted with a nervous twitch. "Right now our bodies are laying on the living room floor. In a few days someone will find us and rush us to the hospital..."

"Shut up!" Daniels ordered.

"... where we will be hooked up to all the tubes and monitors, at least until the money runs out. Then we will be dropped into a nursing home where...."

"I SAID SHUT UP!"

"...we will atrophy with the minimum care given to charity cases until some one gets a court order to yank the feeding tube..."

Everett was now in Ethan's face screaming obscenities and waving the gun around, totally oblivious to the fact that Rupert and Buffy were coming up on his blind side.

Emboldened by the approach of help Ethan poked his finger into Daniel's chest and raised his voice back at his employer. "...which will be a BLESSING!"

"DANIELS!" Rupert shouted, almost in his target's ear. Everett whirled around and caught a handful of sand in his face and eyes. Giles and Ethan locked onto Daniels' right wrist and arm as Buffy pinned him from the left side.

"Just like old times, eah Ripper?" Ethan said with a gallows grin.

"Shut UP!" Rupert spit back as he twisted the gun free and pulled away from the clutch. He took a few running steps toward the shoreline and flung the weapon out into the water. Ethan and Buffy dragged Everett over to the boulder and smacked him face down over it.

Ethan tossed his head toward their captive. "Ripper! Might be a good idea to pat him down."

"Yeah! Then let me knock him down!" Buffy snarled while giving the arm an extra twist.

Joyce breathed a ragged sigh as she came over to the others. The numbing shock over their plight was beginning to lessen and in its place she felt a rising panic. "Okay Joyce... don't go off the deep end... stay calm.... nobody has time to deal with a basket case... we're going to be okay..." She soundlessly mouthed the words as she mentally regrouped. She bit her lip and stared at the colorless landscape. Black waves folding onto an ashen beach; above them a sunless pewter sky glowed with an unnatural light that seemed to come from all directions, but yet... from nowhere. The narrow boulder strewn beach ended abruptly about seventy-five yards inland at the foot of what seemed to be an endless range of drab gray cliffs and bluffs.

Reaching down Joyce pulled the hem of her blouse up and stared at it. This was her dark green blouse... green not the charcoal color that now registered in her mind. She dropped the material and brought her hands up to her face. With a shudder she pegged the color of her skin - corpse gray.

"He's unarmed." Rupert said as he finished the pat down.

Buffy grinned wickedly. "Can I do the cavity search?"

"Find me a sharp stick and I'll do it." Joyce hissed.

"I see why you like these Summers women!" Rayne laughed.

"You're next Ethan." Giles said without a trace of humor.

Ethan's smile faded. "Now steady... I'm on your side now."

"Riiiight!" Buffy sniped.

"I hired you Rayne! I own you! You can kiss you fee..." Everett began rage and struggle.

"You can shove the money up your arse!" Ethan stopped and blinked at his words. "Never thought I'd hear myself say that!" He slid his right leg out toward Rupert. "Ripper... I have an ankle knife on me. You want to cut off a length of this bugger's pants or jacket so we can tie him up proper?"

Rupert suspiciously eyed his old friend for a moment. "If I ever get the first inkling that this is a ploy on your part...." He went silent, allowing his words to hang in midair until Ethan nodded his understanding of the unspoken threat. "Very well." Giles muttered as he knelt down and retrieved the knife. He reached around, pulled Everett's suitjacket free and began to slice along the bottom edge.

Daniels quit struggling and twisted his head around to glare at Rupert. "Do you realize this jacket is worth more than you are?"

"I certainly hope so." Giles dryly responded as he carved away at the material until he had the improvised binding cut free and the jacket perfectly ruined. "Buffy... bring his wrist around here.... you also Ethan."

"We should tie one tight around his neck." Joyce sniped as Daniels lurched away from the boulder twisting his wrists to test the integrity of his bindings. After a few seconds of cursing he stopped and addressed Rupert with a curled lip. "Well, since you are now in charge... what next?"

"I don't have a clue." Giles answered honestly. "All I know about Garoth and the Soul Gem is the basic facts. Consequently..."

"I did some research." Ethan interrupted.

Rupert raised an eyebrow. "Let's hear it."

"Not much to say..." Rayne stopped and rubbed his hand back through his hair. "... Not much at all. Besides the origin of the Gem and the curse, there's only four things known for sure - one: some people die right away, some linger for years; two: nobody's ever come back out of the coma; three: after death the body sometimes does not decay for a very long time then suddenly 'poof' it goes to dust and four: no one has ever been able to contact a shade that was pulled in here."

"Well of course not, you idiot. I could have told you all of that!" Daniels snapped. "I spent seven years contracting the best conjurers in the world and none of them could raise Laura. And not one of them had the balls to go in after her!" His voice went to a snarl. "Then one of them stole the gem! Bastard! He said I should not keep it! Said it was too dangerous... that it should be dropped into middle of the ocean!"

"Duh!" Buffy snotted.

"Oh Dear God...." Rupert mumbled under his breath.

Buffy shot Rupert a sidelong glance. "Ut-oh... You know Giles I hate it when you do that."

"I think we better get moving."

"Why?" Joyce squeaked.

"I... ummm, just have a very bad feeling." Rupert said as he motioned for them to come along. "Some people die right away, it could be that they meet some terrible fate as soon as they get here."

"As in Garoth?" Ethan asked softly.

"Perhaps. Remember, he is also trapped in here." Giles half turned toward Everett. "Tell me, by what means did these sorcerers try to contact your wife?"

"I don't know! They drew things, they burned things, they mumbled." He gritted his teeth and hissed. "HELL! I was never into it! I'm a businessman not a damned wizard!"

Rupert laughed grimly. "If I may quote Miss Summers... 'duh'."

"So if you're not really into this... stuff. How did you get the spell?" Joyce asked.

Everett shook his head.

"The lady asked you a valid question, and you are not in a position to annoy us." Giles' voice had a hard edge that said more than his words.

For a second Daniels considered remaining defiant, but the dark reality of the situation was beginning to sink in. "I found it in Laura's hands, she was holding it." His features went to a genuine sorrow. "I don't know why she tried it... she had everything she wanted, anything she asked for I gave her. I thought this 'hobby' of hers was just foolish play acting.... not real, just a game. Then I found her, with her so called coven, laying like... like abandoned dolls out in the garden. Bonnie was dead when I found them. Janice died the next night and Cathleen passed away a year ago. My Laura and Jerrod have been in a coma ever since." Daniels choked back a sob as the memory washed over him. "Why did it happen? H-h-how did it happen. I-it w-was... was j-just a game."

Ethan shivered as he watched Rupert's face harden. Giles drew in a deep breath between his clenched teeth. "A game?" He asked with mounting ire. "A.. 'game'? Tell me.. do you 'still' think this is A GOD-DAMNED GAME?!"

"I didn't mean.."

Everett barely the third word out before Rupert's fist made contact. He spun around and fell face down to the ground with Giles coming in for a second hit. "RIPPER!" Ethan shouted as he grabbed Rupert around the waist and tried to pull him off Daniels. Joyce went down beside Everett and held her hand up for Giles to stop the attack. "Please! This is not helping!"

"It's not 'hurting' either!" Rupert snapped at her as he jabbed his elbows back into Ethan. "And you.. LET ME GO!"

"I wasn't going to bring you four with me." Everett said as he drew himself up into a kneeing position. "Believe me... I was going to take my four men. But you and Rayne seemed to know about this and..."

"And what about my daughter? And myself?"

Everett bowed his head. "I'm sorry."

Joyce's response was to the point. "Go to hell."

Giles tossed his hand down the beach. "Let's get moving."

"François? Wake... wake please..."

"What is it my dear one?"

"More have been brought here. I heard the beast making ready the hunt." João stood and smoothed her skirt. "I will awaken Karl and Muhyi. I know better than to bother the new ones."

François Grilliot sat up on the edge of his rough cot and put his head in his hands. "Is it worth it?"

"We were greeted by those who are no more, now we must take the duty." João flashed a sad smile and went to the other side of the cavern where she gently called the others from their rest.

François shivered. "Another five lambs to the slaughter, when will it end?" He raised his head and stared lovingly at João. By appearance she seemed barely out of her teens, but in reality over 350 years old. She had been a slave in colonial Brazil forced by her master to stand at a corner of the pentagram as he called for Garoth.

His gaze went to the man who has risen from his cot and was standing beside João. Karl Katterheinrich stood rigidly with his helmet in hand listening to João. Karl was another sacrificed to the soul gem by those he once served. In the Great War to End All Wars his Captain had cast the spell to try and unleash Garoth upon the enemy, but instead of victory they found captivity.

Then there was Muhyi, who Grilliot considered his equal in the crimes of audacity and arrogance, for he had also tried to break the demon free...

Cairo, 1880. Grilliot noticed him counting off the grouped lines which covered the wall, their calendar of sorts. A vertical line drawn each time the appointed one went to bed to count off what they considered the passing of a day in a place without night. Interspersed here and there were "X's" to announce the arrival of unfortunates and crosses to register their destruction.

Muhyi turned and caught his eye and he knew their thoughts were the same. "Not again, it's too soon." With a groan François stood and motioned for Muhyi to join him at the cave entrance. "So friend, once again someone has been as foolish as we were." The Egyptian sadly acknowledged this statement with a heavy sigh. "We must hurry, if Allah wills we will be there in time."

"But we lost so many the last time." Grilliot countered. "And for what end? That we saved 'them'. Saved them and in return they acted as if it was our 'duty' to sacrifice." He tossed his head toward the rear of the cavern. "They treat João like a servant, they look down their nose at you, they torment Karl with news of his homeland's defeat and division." François' eyes narrowed. "They are the kind that we sent to Madam Guillotine by the cartfull."

"And your turn in the cart was coming." Muhyi pointed out.

"If I knew then as I know now I would have raced after the cart and jumped in." Grilliot made a slicing motion across his neck. "And kissed the executioner at the platform."

Karl walked up to them and held out to each a coil of rough, hand-fashioned rope. "Are we ready?"

Grilliot hesitated a moment as his eyes darted between the rope and the forest which lay outside. With a shrug he hoisted the coil over his shoulder. "Liberté, égalité, fraternité." He muttered as they left the safety of their underground sanctuary.

The stranger's voice cut through the air freezing everyone in their tracks. "STOP! STOP NOW!"

What the..." Ethan stopped mid sentence and pointed to the top of the cliff. "Up there!"

Buffy's jaw dropped. "It's the Red Baron and Aladdin."

"Hardly." Rupert whispered. He took a few steps toward the cliff and strained to hear what was being said.

"Hurry! Hurry! You must get off the beach! Go back one hundred meters to the place where we can help you!"

"Who are you?" Giles called up to them.

Muhyi pointed a finger back down the beach and waved his other arm in a frantic 'hurry up' motion. "NO TIME! GO!"

"I don't like the sound of this." Joyce said nervously.

"Neither do I." Giles took the knife from his pocket and ordered Daniels to turn around. "This is against my better judgment, but it might be necessary for you to defend yourself." He said as he started to cut the man free.

"What do you think is going on?" Everett asked.

A howl echoed from up the beach sending everyone's hair up on the back of their necks.

"Perhaps it has something to do with that. Hold still damn it! Everyone else - RUN!" As Giles barked out the last word the knife sliced through the binding and Everett was off like a greyhound. Rupert allowed himself a quick look up the beach. "Oh God.... it's Garoth!"

Enraged that his quarry had been warned of the trap the demon had reveled his presence. It stood on a house size block of granite three hundred yards away screeching and snarling. A cold stab of fear rushed through Rupert and he took off after the others.

In their headlong scramble they almost ran past the place where the ropes had been dropped for them. Only Ethan heard Grilliot's yell for them to stop.

"I can't.. can't climb that!" Joyce gasped as Buffy pressed the end of a rope into her hand.

"Mom! You have to try! It's not that high!"

"Buffy! It's at least sixty feet straight up!"

"Here! Here! Wrap it around your arm and one leg. Brace yourself on the outcroppings, just go!" Ethan said in a voice approaching panic.

"It's after us!" Rupert shouted as he caught up with them. He jerked Daniels away from a rope. "Buffy go on up! Ethan you too! If necessary the two of you can pull Joyce up!" He balled up a fist and faced off to Everett. "Mr. Daniels and I will go last."

Ethan did not need to be told twice. He went up the first rope like a monkey. Buffy hesitated for a moment then followed suit. As she reached the top a pair of strong hands grabbed her by the arms and pulled her up over the edge.

"Nice hat." She deadpanned as she took in Karl's spiked helmet. He grimaced at her comment and helped her to her feet. He pointed at the departing Ethan and João. "Follow them! Go!"

"Not until I get my Mom up here!" Buffy countered. She went over to Muhyi was straining with Joyce's rope and grabbed hold. Using her Slayer strength she brought the rope up hand over hand until Joyce appeared. Buffy pulled her to safety. "You can open your eyes now Mom."

"Yes, yes... Muhyi! Get them back to the cave." François ordered. Something in the man's face made both women not even consider arguing with the command.

Below, Rupert and Everett each grabbed a free rope and began to scramble up the cliff as the sound of Garoth's approach grew closer and closer. Both men made it to the top in the same instant that the creature wrapped it's claws around their ropes and heaved itself upward. With a whip like snap, the lines wrenched free from François and Karl's hands leaving vicious friction burns across their fingertips and palms.

Rupert looked around the clearing. "Where's the others? Where are..."

François scooped up the remaining rope and pointed out a path. "With Muhyi and João! Come... come... hurry... this way."

Everett did not move. "Where's my wife?!"

"I said she went with the others!"

"NOT HER! LAURA... WHERE'S LAURA?"

The sound of Garoth's talons rasping against the stone ended all further discussion. Karl started toward a second pathway. "The small haven is closer."

"Follow us or die!" Grilliot shouted as he swept past Rupert and Daniels. This was enough to send both newcomers on a dead run after their two rescuers. They ran through the gray pines in desperate race for their existence as Garoth pulled an inch closer with each step. Rupert felt as if his heart was on the verge of bursting as the black entrance to a cave came into view. With a last surge of adrenaline they made it... only twenty paces ahead of the demon... but they made it.

One by one each collapsed onto the floor as Garoth raged. After several minutes, François staggered over and sat down in front of Rupert and Everett. "I am François, that is Karl." He tossed his thumb toward the demon. "That is Garoth, he fears only fire and cannot enter caves. I know how you came to be here, you know how we came to be here. Welcome to hell my friends... welcome to hell."

"There is much you will need to learn." Karl added. "But we have time. That is all we have here - time."

Rupert leaned forward a bit and extended his hand. "I am Rupert Giles." Grilliot accepted the handshake as did Karl.

"Now that the pleasantries are out of the way! Where is my wife? Where is Laura?" Everett snotted from his place against the wall.

"Laura?" François curled his lip as he said the name. "She is back at our main sanctuary... with her lover. You too, I now welcome to hell."