Dawn paced anxiously across the living room floor, alone with her racing thoughts, glancing every now and then toward the stairs with impatient annoyance. She wasn't a child; she didn't see why Spike wouldn't allow her in the room. She had seen his reasons as valid and...well, reasonable...only a few short minutes ago, but by this point her impatience and curiosity had gotten the better of her, and all she could feel was irritation at being excluded...and a little bit of fear, over leaving Spike alone with Warren, even though she knew in her mind that her friend was in no danger.

When Buffy came in a few minutes later, panting and flushed from her furious race across town from the cemetery in the chilly night air, Dawn managed to stop her just inside the door, before she could even consider going upstairs, if she had even intended to.

"Is everything okay?" Buffy asked her urgently, breathlessly, catching her sister's arms and looking at her with concern just short of fear in her wide green eyes. "Where's Spike? Warren's escaped!"

"I know," Dawn said softly, slowly, meeting the Slayer's eyes firmly.

There was a brief pause as Buffy took that in, then asked in a voice that trembled with apprehension, "How?" She could tell that Dawn was preparing to tell her something important, and desperately hoped that no harm had come to Spike.

"First of all," Dawn began cautiously, holding her sister's gaze, not wanting to cause her to freak out before she could finish the story. "We are all right. Everything is fine and under control. Warren didn’t hurt either of us."

"Okay," Buffy replied slowly, a hint of annoyance in her tone at being made to wait for the answers she sought, mingling with her relief at the small bit of encouraging information she had received. "That's great. Now tell me what happened."

Dawn took a deep breath before plunging ahead to reply. "Warren's upstairs with Spike," she blurted out. "But Anya made it so the chip goes off when he tries to hit Spike, so he's in not in any danger! Warren can’t hurt him. He's -- he's going to..." She hesitated, not sure how to put the rest.

Buffy's eyes widened even further and she stared up the staircase for a moment before looking back into her sister's eyes. She knew what Dawn could not bring herself to say. Spike was finally taking his vengeance on his abuser. Some vague part of her felt that she should be concerned, should be conflicted about whether or not to allow it and how far.

But all she felt was triumph and joy.

She shook herself out of her reverie and looked back to her sister. "He came here to attack Spike?" she asked after a brief silence.

"Yeah. Well, he came here to attack *all* of us. He said he was going to kill you, Buffy, and take me and Spike both back with him. Only Spike wasn't here. He got back...um, just in time," Dawn finished uncomfortably, looking down at the floor, her voice trembling as the reality of the terrifying memory finally caught up with her. So much had been going on at the time that she really hadn't had time to even consider exactly what had happened – and what had *almost* happened.

"Did Warren hurt you?" Buffy demanded suddenly, not missing the shaken, fearful expression in her little sister's eyes, a dark rage suddenly flashing in her own at the thought. If Warren had done anything to her sister, she thought ruefully, Spike just might end up being robbed of his vengeance.

"N-no," Dawn said. "I mean -- he hit me a couple of times. He was going to -- to..." She couldn't finish, just shook her head before adding quickly, looking hopefully up at Buffy in an attempt to calm her obviously rising temper. "But Spike stopped him! He didn't let him! And then when Warren hit Spike, the chip went off! So we figured out that he *can't* hit Spike."

She paused, giving her sister a meaningful look as she finished, "And that's about the time that Spike decided that whatever's happening up there right now is...um...not for my delicate virgin eyes."

A look of understanding came over Buffy's face as she looked once more toward the stairs. "I see," she said softly.

"The others are on their way over here. We were going to meet," Dawn informed her, but Buffy wasn’t really paying much attention to her anymore.

"Go ahead and wait for them here," Buffy instructed. "I'm gonna go upstairs and check to be sure Spike's okay."

"He asked me not to let anyone go up there," Dawn protested apologetically, reaching to catch her sister's arm as she moved past her toward the stairs. "He said it's private and he didn't want anyone to see what's going on."

Buffy turned to face her for a moment with a slight smile as she replied, "I don't think he meant me, Dawnie."

Dawn searched her sister's eyes for a long moment, and nodded slowly, realizing that whether or not that was what he had intended, whether or not he even realized it, what Spike was doing was going to have a tremendous emotional impact on him, albeit a positive one. Still, he was going to be needing Buffy’s support very soon.

Buffy had barely disappeared up the stairs when the doorbell rang, and Dawn hurried to answer it. Over the course of the next twenty minutes or so, all of the Scoobies arrived at the house, first Anya and Xander, and then Willow, and finally Tara, who had had an evening study session. Dawn only remembered once she started to explain to them that none of them had any idea about the whole vengeance wish situation in the first place. Thus it was that she ended up attempting to give her account of what had happened several times, and it ended up coming across a bit jumbled and disjointed, with everyone hearing the beginning, but no one quite catching the whole story.

“So let me get this straight…” Willow began slowly, frowning in slight confusion.

“Oh, for heaven’s sake!” Anya burst in. Having had some major insight into the situation beforehand, she was the only one who understood completely what had happened, and was irrationally irritated that the others didn’t catch on as quickly. She took a deep breath and launched into her own explanation.

“Dawn made a vengeance wish for Spike to give Warren his chip and chain him up in Spike’s crypt so she could torture him. Buffy went down there to kick his butt herself and had a blonde moment and left the key, so he escaped. He came here after Spike but the chip won’t let him hurt Spike, so Spike’s upstairs, probably ripping him into itty bitty bits as we speak. Clear?”

There was a moment of silence as everyone took that in.

“*Dawnie*?” Tara looked at the girl, slightly aghast at the thought of “little Dawn” torturing anyone, and Dawn glanced at the floor, feeling a little embarrassed.

“Warren’s up there with Spike *right now*?” Willow sounded very worried as she glanced anxiously toward the stairs.

Xander turned to Anya with a look of mock surprise. “You’re a vengeance demon again?” he asked, eyes wide and innocent.

She gave him a confused, worried look for a moment, shaking her head and opening her mouth to defend herself, before she realized that he was joking and gave his arm a playful slap, rolling her eyes and looking back toward the group.

“Wait a second…Anya’s a vengeance demon again?” Willow repeated the question, just catching on when Xander pointed it out.

Anya shot Xander a death look before putting on her best hopeful, innocent smile as she faced the group.

“Where’s Buffy?” Tara asked quickly, in a deliberate attempt to draw the attention away from the obviously uncomfortable vengeance demon.

“She’s upstairs, too.”

Xander let out a slow whistle as with the others he turned his eyes toward the stairs as well. “So Warren’s up there right now with the master vampire that he tortured for five months, and his very pissed off Slayer girlfriend.” He paused, shaking his head slightly, before he added in a voice that was equal parts awe and glee, “Boy, would I hate to be in Warren’s shoes right now!”

“Um, Dawnie?” Anya said suddenly, her eyes widening with a sudden realization. “Can I talk to you for a minute, Sweetie?” Her smile, her tone, the endearment she never used – all were so obviously false that it was ridiculous, but Dawn followed her retreating form into the kitchen, a little worried by the underlying fear she saw in Anya’s eyes.

Once they were safely in the kitchen, away from the eager ears of the rest of the group, Anya turned to Dawn with an expectant, worried look. “Haven’t you forgotten something?” she asked, her arms crossed over her chest and her eyebrows raised.

Dawn drew a blank. “Um…”

“Tall, dark, and creepy? Demon guy? Demon guy *you* made a deal with, Honey?” Anya clarified, waiting for Dawn to share her concern. She was immediately disappointed.

Dawn shrugged carelessly. “Oh, him. Well, obviously, if Spike kills Warren, the deal’s off.” Considering the matter closed, she turned to go back into the living room to rejoin the others.

Anya caught her arm and pulled her back around, shaking her head with an ominous look in her eyes. “That’s not quite how it works, Dawnie,” she said, her voice quiet but heavy with fear. “You made a deal, and he’s going to expect the payment.”

Dawn gave her a blank look for a moment, still not seeing what was the big deal. “Well, he’s gonna have to get over it,” she said at last in an overly patient voice. “If he’s got a problem with that, he can take it up with the Slayer. I’m sure Buffy would be happy to kick his butt.”

“Dawn…you know nothing about demon culture.” Anya paused, trying to find the right words to explain. “It’s a matter of honor. If you don’t give him Warren like you promised …he’s still gonna expect *something*. Most likely you.”

Dawn swallowed hard, paling a little at that thought. “Well,” she repeated softly. “Buffy will take care of him…”

“He’s pretty tough, Dawnie. And say you’re right. Say she kills him. It won’t matter. You’ll have a price on your head, Dawnie. His type of demon is very clannish, and very loyal to their families. His family will track you down. So Buffy won’t only have to deal with him, but every single one of his relatives.”

Dawn was looking at the floor by now, her eyes wide as she thought about what Anya was saying. She sighed heavily. “Not that Buffy couldn’t take them on…but that *does* sound pretty bad,” she admitted.

Anya nodded in agreement with an apologetic grimace. “Buffy could be cleaning up this mess for years, Dawnie.”

Dawn looked back up at Anya, understanding, but wanting to make her see her point. “But I just can’t ask Spike to stop what he’s doing. I mean…after everything that’s happened…maybe he…maybe he *needs* this, Anya! Maybe he needs to destroy Warren to get over what he did to him.”

“Well,” Anya began, frowning thoughtfully as she considered the dilemma. “Maybe there’s something to be done about that.” She looked back at Dawn, her eyebrows raised as an idea occurred to her. “We never promised Arashmar that his prize would be *human*…did we?”

“No,” Dawn replied slowly, not quite understanding what Anya was getting at. “How does that help?”

“Spike can go ahead and kill Warren,” she explained, smiling as she began to get more into the idea. “The miserable little creep deserves it.” She paused for effect before finishing with a self-satisfied smirk. “He just can’t let him stay dead.”

“So we give Arashmar vamp-Warren instead of pathetic-loser-Warren.” Dawn’s eyes widened as she finally comprehended what Anya was saying. “My God,” she whispered, meeting her eyes in shock. “No wonder you’re so good at your job, Anya. You can be down right evil.”

Anya’s eyes lit up as if she had just been paid a high compliment. Teasingly she put a finger to her lips and said, “Shhh. Don’t tell.”

Hurriedly she rushed upstairs, wanting to catch Spike and fill him in on the change in plans before he could finish with Warren. As she mounted the stairs she had a momentary twinge of fear as she remembered that neither her sister nor Spike even knew that she had made the deal in the first place.

They were not going to be pleased.

Buffy saw her coming up the stairs and cut her off at the top quickly, not wanting her little sister, who was far more naïve and innocent than she liked to believe, to see the gruesome sight in her bedroom. “What is it, Dawnie?” she asked in a whisper, not wanting Spike to be aware that Dawn was there.

Dawn grimaced slightly in anticipation of the yelling and possibly getting shoved back down the stairs before taking a deep breath and launching into her explanation. As she had expected, Buffy was furious that she had placed herself in danger, but quickly made herself think about the situation at hand, and found that Anya’s plan seemed to make the most sense at this point.

“Okay,” she agreed reluctantly, “But I’m gonna make it part of the deal when this guy shows up that he’s to stay out of our dimension from now on. I don’t care *what* he does in his own demon dimension. Warren is one thing, but I’m not gonna have him trafficking in innocent people.”

“We’ve got to tell Spike before he kills Warren,” Dawn said urgently, hearing only her sister’s agreement to the plan, trying to push past Buffy -- who firmly pushed her back.

“I’ll tell him,” she told her, meeting her eyes in a look that told her she meant business.

Dawn frowned, looking a little sick. “I’m gonna need new carpet…heck, I’m gonna need a whole new room, aren’t I?” she realized, looking at her sister. She didn’t even want to think about what her room probably looked like right now.

Buffy gave her an apologetic look. “It’s not that bad, I promise,” she assured her. She raised her eyebrows in an optimistic smile, “Willow’s room is free at the moment,” she offered with a little shrug – followed by a coy smile. The room that had been offered up for Spike when they had first brought him home had ended up being sorely neglected.

Buffy turned back toward the bedroom, which really was not as bad as Dawn had imagined. Her little sister had a vivid imagination that had conjured up much more gore and bloodshed than was actually occurring.

Spike – not actually being anywhere near the level of monster that his victim was – had not actually indulged in the sorts of torture that he had imagined over and over during his slow, painful recovery…the sorts of torture that Warren had inflicted on him.

But he *had* almost drained the boy dry.

Buffy went to him, cautiously putting a hand on his shoulder and speaking his name softly to draw his attention. “Spike.”

Immediately he drew back, as always attentive to her. A flash of shame and fear showed in his golden eyes, as he quickly lowered them, ashamed to have her see him like this, in the act of his vengeance.

But she smiled reassuringly at him, trying with everything in her not to look at his victim on the floor, reminding herself that the “victim” was far more cruel and evil than Spike had ever been. She wasted no time in explaining the situation to him.

He frowned, a little confused. “So this demon bloke that Little Bit made a deal with – he’s gonna kill him, or…? What’s he want with him exactly, love?” He wanted to be sure that Warren was no longer able to pose a threat to him or the ones he loved – even a potential threat.

Buffy smiled. “See, that’s just it, Spike. He doesn’t want to kill him. He’s going to be alive. Death’s easier than what’s going to happen to him, I promise. But he’ll never, *ever* be able to come near us again.”

“Just exactly who is this Arashmar fella, pet?” he asked slowly, searching her eyes.

Her smiled widened in triumph at the irony, the perfect justice, of it. “He travels between dimensions and collects various species – human, demon, vampire – for *sale*.” She paused for a moment, allowing it to sink in.

“He’s a slave trader, Spike.”