Disclaimer: Joss owns ‘em, I just play.

Author’s note: Once again I praise the wonderfulness of Bloodytearsoflife, who is a great friend, and fabulous beta.
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Chapter 21: Stuck

“So how come Anya’s not back?” Amy asked, as she sat bored out of her skull, waiting for something to happen.

The assembled Scoobies and AI crew sat silently waiting for someone to answer.

“She should have been back by now,” Giles commented, a worried look on his face.

“I think we should question solider boy again,” Molly suggested, her eyes locking on Connor’s from across the room.

“He doesn’t know anything!” Dawn tried to yell, but could barely maintain her normal tone of voice. “We’ve asked him. He can’t tell us what he doesn’t know.”

As Dawn sank into the couch, Willow moved beside her.

“Dawnie, you don’t look well.”

“Really?” Dawn responded sarcastically. “’Cause I feel fantastic.”

“Is it a consequence of the portals?” asked Nate.

“Feels like. I can’t figure out why though.”

“Well you’d better snap out of it,” noted Molly moving closer to her friend. “Buffy isn’t here. There’s no free blood on tap for you to get better!”

“Ya, you look like Luke in The Empire Strikes Back when the…”

Molly cut Andrew off. “Not helping!”

“Now that I have a great visual floating around in my brain,” Dawn said trying to sit up. “No way I’m dying with Luke Skywalker on the brain.”

“I think it would be best if we send another group to the house, this time with a cell phone that works. We cannot find out what happened to Buffy, Spike, and Anya if we remain here,” suggested Nate.

“Agreed,” noted Xander. “But who gets to go?”

“And in what car?” piped up Cordelia. “’Cause you aren’t taking mine.”
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In the end Amy, Xander, and Giles took Cordelia’s car.

1630 Revello Drive appeared calm, quiet and normal, like it would on a Sunday morning. Birds were singing, and there was a gentle breeze tossing the leaves aside.

And then there was Angel’s car sitting in the drive way.

“We can’t just barge into the house,” said Xander, taking a broad sword he’d purloined from Cordelia’s backseat.

“I don’t think the sword is going to help, Xander,” Giles mentioned, stepping onto the front lawn.

“I just like being prepared. The Boy Scouts rubbed off on me,” Xander quipped.

“You were a boy scout?” Amy asked following behind the two men.

“Lasted for a month, until my dad started to forget to bring me to meetings. The booze was more important.”

Amy gave him a sympathetic smile.

“At least you didn’t body switch with your mom, or get turned into a rat. ‘Cause that really sucked.”

Xander nodded. “Sharing the trauma.”

“Children!” Giles barked, turning on the porch to face them.

“I stand chastised,” Xander commented.

“This is serious!” Giles exclaimed. “Anya could be in danger!”

“Much like Buffy and Spike, but let’s not think about them,” Xander continued.

“Xander…” Amy warned. “I think we should be more serious.”

“I mask any fear with jokes and sarcasm, I thought you knew that?” explained the zeppo.

Giles nudged the already open door wider and peered in. “Buffy?” he called out, not daring to enter the house.

“Spike?” Amy yelled, attempting to help but only earning a look of contempt from the watcher. “Okay, I won’t help then,” Amy said, raising her hands defensively.

“Stay here. I’ll discover if they are in the house,” ordered Giles.

“And when whatever ate their heads,” started Xander, “eats yours…”

“Then you’ll have the august privilege of telling the others,” Giles responded.

“Uh, yay?” said Xander. “Sadly, I really don’t want to have to do that.”

“Then you’d better hope that there is nothing in the house that will eat my head,” answered Giles.

“Mr. Giles…” Amy warned. “I don’t think that this is a good idea. We’re all worried about Anya, Buffy, and Spike but come on, walking into the house when we don’t know what’s happened?”

Giles rolled his eyes and stepped over the threshold. Xander and Amy watched as Giles took another step into the house, his sword raised.

Xander opened his mouth to make some smart comment but gasped instead as Giles disappeared before his eyes.

“Oh, that can’t be good,” Amy commented.
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“I’m bored,” Anya whined from her spot on the living room floor. “I’ve seen this movie.”

Buffy lifted her head up off Spike’s shoulder and looked at her demon friend. “You can choose the next movie?”

“I want out!” Anya continued to complain.

“Why don’t you spend some energy trying to find a way out then?” Spike suggested.

“What’s the point?” Anya sighed. “We can’t get out, we’ve tried every way we know how. We’re stuck here until we die, or Dawn closes the portal she doesn’t know is open, or she dies. Any way you think about it, it’s not good.”

Buffy snuggled in closer to her fiancé, she didn’t want to hear the prediction of doom. She felt like an ass for getting caught up in this mess, leaving Dawn, and not paying closer attention to what was going on around her. She’d been so caught up in her happy life. She should have been paying more attention.

“Buffy,” Spike whispered in her ear.

“I don’t want to face reality,” she muttered into his side, refusing to look up.

“Giles!” screamed Anya.

That forced Buffy out of her self pity.

“Giles?” the retired slayer asked looking at the figure being embraced by the vengeance demon.

Anya squealed with delight as she covered Giles’ face with staccato like kisses.

“Did you come to get us out?” Anya asked between kisses.

“I did,” the watcher responded.

“That’s great Giles!” Buffy exclaimed, perking right up and standing up from the couch. “Anya get off of him so that we can get out.”

Anya pouted.

“What are you all doing standing around here?” Giles asked, holding Anya close, and thus stemming the wave of kisses. ”Why didn’t you call the hotel?”

Spike looked over at his fiancée with disappointment. “The watcher’s got no clue, love,” Spike sighed.

“Giles,” Buffy said, sighing as well, and returning to the couch and to Spike’s arms. “We’re stuck here,” Buffy explained.

“We can explain later,” Anya noted, putting a stop to any further discussion. “Giles and I are going to have sex now.”

“Ugh,” Buffy moaned. “Use Molly’s room. I don’t care if the house is self cleaning. I don’t want you and my watcher getting it on, in my bed.”
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Xander and Amy stared at the open doorway from their position on the porch of 1630 Revello Drive.

“Okay, I’m calling it,” started Xander.

“Calling it what?” the witch asked.

“I’m calling it a ‘time to call Willow’ moment.”

Amy put her hands on her hips. “You don’t think I can solve this?” she asked. “I may not be as experienced as she is, and I was a rat for a couple of years, but I’ve got power. Maybe I can fix this?”

Xander stepped back from his companion, giving her a wide berth. “Well, go ahead then,” Xander said waiting for Amy to do something. “Impress me.”

Amy stared at the doorway for a moment then sat down on the porch, her legs crossed and eyes closed.

“You getting anything?” Xander asked after a time.

Amy nodded. “I wonder if… Well what if we went in through another door?” the witch asked.

Xander shrugged. “Can’t hurt to try I suppose. If I don’t come out, you call Willow okay?”

Amy nodded.

Xander jumped down off the porch and headed around to the back kitchen door, all the while his sword in hand. He stepped carefully onto the back porch and peered into the kitchen windows for a moment before opening the door.

Xander carefully stepped into the kitchen, his eyes taking in the scene. The kitchen was just as they had left it; of course the food had gone slightly off. Buffy’s glass of diet coke still sat resolutely beside the stove, the bubbles all fizzed out. The house was eerily quiet, each squeak of his boots echoing through the house.

He walked through the kitchen and the dining room, looking out the windows at the front of the house to make sure that Amy was still on the front porch. He took a quick look at the spot where Giles had disappeared and frowned. He didn’t put too much thought into why he’d disappeared, just that he had. He wasn’t the brains of the operation, he knew that much. Shrugging, he turned and headed up the stairs to the bedrooms.

It didn’t take him long to notice that nothing was out of place. He had one place to look next, the basement. Putting quiet to the wind, Xander thundered down the stairs, and into the basement, right into the clutches of a waiting M’fashnik demon.
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Amy breathed in the slightly perfumed air around her. So far all she was getting was that there was a portal opened in the house, where Giles had disappeared, but she was no closer to finding out why it was there or how to bring Giles back. She hated to admit it, but it seemed like Willow was the best candidate for fixing this problem.

Amy rested her head in her hands for a moment, admitting her limits to herself. She’d wait for Xander to come back and then they’d go back to LA and get the rest of the gang on the case. Maybe even Dawn would know what do to, she was all one with the portals.

Amy held her head up and counted the cars that sat near the house. They seemed to have multiplied since she last looked. Buffy’s Ford Explorer, Spike’s Desoto, Xander’s sedan, Giles’ mid life crisis-mobile, Angel’s convertible, and Cordelia’s Jeep were now joined by a couple of black van type things.

“Oh, this is not good,“ Amy muttered, standing up, only realising at the last minute that a guy in a black mask was behind her with a tazer.
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The M’fashnik’s head rolled under the basement stairs, as Xander panted for breath. He wasn’t used to fighting for his life on his own, but he was quite satisfied to know that when it counted, when his own life was on the line, he got the job done.

Intensely sore, relieved, and pretty sure that he’d peed himself just a little, Xander mounted the stairs and headed into the living room. Casting a glance to where he had so recently seen Amy, his eyes met with just porch. Amy was gone.

Amy was gone and two black vans were pulling away from the curb in front of the house.

His eyes wide, he rushed towards the door ignoring the fact that he’d just walked over the spot where Giles had disappeared. Xander tripped a little bit on the rug in the middle of the floor, banged against the hall closet and continued on his way out the front door, the door swinging closed behind him.

Xander ran down the porch steps and after the speeding vans, until he ran out of breath. He was starting to rethink the sword he was carrying. Walking briskly back to the house, he dumped the sword into the back of his car. He had to let everyone know what had happened. As he approached the house a new sound filled the air. One that he was very familiar with.
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The sounds of Anya and Giles going at it were impossible to ignore. Anya was loud. Looking over at her fiancé, Buffy couldn’t help but wonder just how uncomfortable it was for him to listen to this. She was just glad that in this time line, Spike hadn’t had sex with Anya. Infinitely glad.

Buffy twisted on the couch, trying to get into a better position to watch the next movie that was supposed to distract her from the fact that Dawn was dying even as she sat there. Spike was standing at the entrance to the kitchen staring out the back yard window, clenching his fists in frustration.

“You want to spar?” she asked, sitting up straighter. “I could use a distraction from this too.” She tried to smile. “I hate being cooped up. I know you hate it too. But there isn’t anything you can do about it.”

“And beating the crap out of you, love, doesn’t seem to me to be the best option,” he said turning around to face her.

“Hey, who says that I’m the one gonna be beaten the crap out of?” she asked, standing up from the couch.

“Xander?” Spike muttered, his eyes no longer on Buffy.

“You can’t beat the crap out of Xander, he’s not here,” Buffy responded.

“No, love. Xander’s outside.”

“What?” Buffy spun around and looked out the window. Xander was running away from the house with a broad sword.
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Tbc…