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The club was, of course, rocking. Deep bass rumbles blasted through oversized speakers as Spike and Giles entered. Purple and blue mini spotlights, mounted upon the ceiling bobbed in time to the music bathing the crowd in pulsing light as vampire and Watcher made their way down the upraised terrace that served as entrance to the club down to the main floor.

“YEAH!” Spike growled, getting a real charge out of the deafening music and good party. Giles grabbed his jacket,

“Stay focused!” Giles yelled. Spike grinned and cupped a hand over his ear, pretending not to be able to hear,

“Eh?” he asked. Giles glared hard at him and practically dragged him through the crowded dance floor, past demons, vampires, and humans. Girls of all species mounted on poles and upon the bar writhed and occasionally poured pitchers of water…as well as blood, upon both themselves and the audience. Spike grinned and laid his head on the bar staring up at one of the demon girls, a creature with deep blue skin and red hair, wearing a porcelain mask and little else, standing over him with a pitcher of blood.

“Fill us up love,” he instructed. The porcelain mask’s features shifted seamlessly to grin at him as the girl raised a perfectly formed foot to his cheek when Spike was jostled hard from behind. Whirling around, the enraged vampire lashed out a fist and clobbered a very inebriated Tak demon into the next world. Turning back his attention to the girl upon the bar…only to witness her attentions have shifted elsewhere.

“Bugger,” he muttered. Giles came up to him just then,

“How is it going?” he asked.

“Miserable. This incredible demon girl was about to perform a Santanico Pandemonium for me until some clumsy oaf-“

“Did you find Satara?” Giles asked impatiently. Spike shook his head,

“Not as of yet, no” Spike confessed,

“Well if you’d stop oogling dancing girls instead of doing something useful!” Giles roared, Spike actually looked taken aback for a moment, before holding up a single finger,

“One second,” he said to the furious man. Walking back up to the blue-skinned dancer, he beckoned for her to kneel down, flashing a twenty. A few words were exchanged as well as five more twenty-dollar bills before Spike nodded satisfied and headed back to Giles,

“Satara’s in the back, behind the piranha aquarium over yonder,” he calmly informed the dumbstruck librarian, pointing at the far end of the club.

“What did you do?” Giles asked skeptically. Spike shrugged as he pulled out a cigarette and lit it,

“A hundred and twenty bucks convinced her that I was a talent scout,” he replied before turning to address the other man, “Never doubt the usefulness of oogling a dancing girl, mate.” Spike smirked and headed to the back leaving a somewhat humbled Giles to catch up.

As they approached the door, A Fyarl demon stepped forward to impose himself before the pair,

“No enter,” it growled glaring down at the smaller vampire. Spike turned to look at Giles who shrugged, then turned back to look up at the demon. Exhaling a final puff of smoke he tossed the cigarette down in front of the demon. The demon looked down at it, arching a fleshy ridge of skin where an eyebrow would be.

Spike looked up at him

And smiled.

The Fyarl demon roared in pain and rage as Spike dunked its head into the piranha tank for a third time. The voracious fish tore tiny chunks from the creature’s face and head at a blinding speed. The water was turning a murky black as bits and pieces of mauled tissue and blood floated to the surface.

After a few moments, Spike hoisted him up, bleeding, coughing, and sputtering,

“Now then, we need to talk to Satara,” Spike casually told the demon. The demon roared, spittle flying out from his bleeding maw as it hurled out a flurry of insults including Spike’s lineage, his relationship with his mother and portions of his anatomy. Spike shook his head sorrowfully,

“You are more right than you know, mate,” Spike lamented forlornly before dunking the bleeding creature back into the black water and the voracious fish within.

“Oh, come on!” A voice called out. Spike and Giles turned around from the grim spectacle of slowly feeding the demon to the fish to see Satara. A single clawed hand frantically tried to push Spike away. Without taking his attention from the demon woman, Spike casually stuffed the flailing hand into the tank adding a new octave to the demon’s screams,

“Do you know how hard it is to get Fyarl out of a fish tank filter?” she asked peevishly. Giles adjusted his glasses,

“We must speak with you, it’s quite urgent,” he told her calmly. Satara nodded,

“Yes, I can see that. I imagine you’re not feeding my bouncer to flesh-eating fish for fun,”

“I’m having fun,” Spike put in grinning. Satara sighed as she noticed both that the water was getting very, very dark and the demon was starting to struggle a lot less.

“Oh, for the love of Tiamat, fish him out of there before he drowns. Do you know how long it took me to find a Fyarl demon dumb enough to work for breadsticks?” she asked peevishly.

“I don’t know, I used to employ a few that worked for chewing gum. Claimed it did wonders to aid in their mucous issues,” Spike threw a wry look at Giles,

“See? I wasn’t lying about that,” Spike gloated to the man who had spent a little time as a Fyarl demon.

“I’m thrilled beyond words, Spike. Fish him out,” Spike rolled his eyes and sighed in exasperation before hauling the demon out and tossing him to the floor, coughing and sputtering, as well as bleeding profusely.

“Fascinating buggers, piranha are. Fun fact about them, they have no taste for the undead, much like wasps, but toss them a nice chewy demon full of all those yummy living juices and…” Spike finished with a grin, examining his completely undamaged hand.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, you’re a regular genius, come into my office and we can discuss your methods of payment for the upcoming stomach pumping for thirty-odd Amazonian piranha,” Spike snorted and followed Satara into her office as Giles closed the door behind them.

“Let me guess, you’re here because you’re wondering whether or not I set your friends up, right?” Satara calmly asked them. The pair was taken aback for a moment at her directness before nodding,

“Yes we are,” Giles replied coolly. Satara sighed and nodded,

“Okay, yes I wasn’t being straight with you but no, I didn’t set you up,” she gestured at a pair of empty chairs, “Please sit,” She smiled wryly when they hesitated. “Trust me you have nothing to worry about, my heaviest hitter just got turned into fish food by short, blond, and vicious here,” she finished with a self-deprecating chuckle, gesturing at Spike. Spike grinned in spite of himself,

“Yeah well, the dumb blighter had it coming,” he replied as he and Giles took their seats.

“Yes, how dare he attempt to do his job and keep violently homicidal vampires from barging in on me,” she sighed then “Okay back to the topic at hand: I thought maybe this rabbi, Mesha Loeb, could help you out. He was always in here asking questions about all kinds of weird stuff so, you know?”

“The rabbi was in here?” Giles asked, puzzled. The demon nodded,

“Thought it was pretty weird to see this old guy all in black with these dreadlocks-,”

“Peyos,” Giles informed her. She nodded,

“Right well, whatever, coming in here and asking about reanimation and necromancy and souls. Saw him actually talking to a few of these cultists, Lazarene I think. Weird bunch,” she frowned as Giles and Spike exchanged a look, “You know I haven’t seen too many of them around lately,” she mused.

“That’s because they were decimated by absent compatriots,” Spike informed her. Satara’s green eyes widened,

“There was like, five score and ten in that necrophyliacs fan club!” she exclaimed.

“We sent some heavy artillery to deal with that,” Spike replied evenly, grinning in pride at his lovers’ and friends’ prowess in battle,

“Yeah, that was part of the reason why I wanted you to come and go as soon as possible, you were packing a LOT of supernatural firepower and that makes me nervous,” Satara explained.

“If we can get back on track here,” Giles interrupted, “You said the rabbi himself was in here talking to members of the Cult of Lazarus asking questions about reanimation?” Satara nodded,

“Well, to be honest, first it was his assistant, called himself a ‘student of the Talmud,’”

“An apprentice rabbi, interesting,” Giles nodded thoughtfully putting his fingers under his chin in thought, “This young man was the first contact?”

“Right up until he disappeared and Rabbi Mesha started coming in himself, yeah,” Satara confirmed. Giles’s dark expression grew darker,

“I see,” he replied. Spike frowned,

“Okay, someone explain to me why we all have our tragedy masks in place please?” he asked. Giles fairly leapt to his feet, ignoring the blond vampire,

“Thank you Satara,” Satara frowned,

“You look worried. Hey, are we cool? You’re not going to send, like, your slayers or your son to come make life difficult for me are you?” she asked worriedly.

“What? Oh, no, no of course not, we’re fine,” Giles replied absentmindedly as he headed to the door. Spike and Satara exchanged confused looks before the former got to his feet and headed out,

“Hold on a moment!” Spike demanded following the rapidly retreated form of Giles. Giles jerked the door open-

Only to duck as a bandaged Fyarl demon roared at him lunging with hands outstretched. Giles wasted no time, kneeling and sending a powerful blow to the creature’s groin. There was a loud ‘crunch’ followed by a primal scream of agony from the demon as it folded over, clutching its ruined anatomy. Before Spike or Satara could even gasp, Giles grabbed the creature by its horn, taking advantage of its temporary off-balance helplessness and using its own considerable weight against it, twisted, pivoted and propelled the creature straight into the aquarium.

It had time to scream once before it impacted with the glass. An explosion of water and glass followed by a geyser of tiny, biting teeth signaled the destruction of the aquarium as the Fyarl demon fell to the soaking floor and writhed, a dozen or so pirhana embedded in its skin and chewing furiously,

“Holy shi-!” Spike gaped, looking at the destruction.

“Come on!” Satara wailed in dismay, looking at the destruction. Giles turned to Spike,

“We’re leaving,” Giles replied calmly, casually kicking aside a gasping fish near his foot that was trying to bite him.

“Aye aye, Ripper,” Spike replied dumbfounded. Then he began to cackle, “That was beautiful! Holy God!” Spike clapped, stepping over the wreckage and following Giles out the door. “Whoa, hold on; hold up, what’s going on?” Spike asked other man. Giles sighed and stopped, allowing the vampire to catch up,

“The Jewish Tradition, especially the branches of Orthodox and Hasidism are very strict about what is and is not acceptable behavior,” Giles began, Spike waved it away,
“Yeah, yeah, this is the same religion that ensures I can’t get a decent cheeseburger in half of New York,” Spike replied flippantly. Giles whirled on him,

“For God sake’s listen to me! And shut up!” Giles yelled. Spike wisely did both.

“The Jewish tradition has one of the oldest and most mystically powerful histories of any of the religions; The Talmud, the Torah, the Kabbalah; each one of these books have been considered at one time or another a source of extraordinary magical power. For those who are properly trained in understanding, decoding and applying the text, it is a source of enormous supernatural prowess, one of the most powerful rites being the creation of an unstoppable automaton”

“Oh come on!” Spike laughed, “You don’t honestly think Rabbi Joey or whatever actually managed to…” he stopped as he noticed Giles’ expression,

“It’s been done before Spike. In 1580 in Prague, a rabbi and two of his assistants, in an attempt to prevent a murderous priest from launching a mob against the Jewish Quarter constructed what texts call “a man of earth and clay” to protect them. Now history is vague here but it is believed that something went awry either during the ritual of creation or afterwards.”

“Awry as in…” Spike asked now looking worried,

“As in the gargantuan creature went on a murderous rampage killing dozens of people before it was destroyed through unknown means,”

“So what has you worried is that the good rabbi may have been trying to create an unkillable juggernaut of death.” Spike pondered that a moment, “Yeah all right, I’ll admit that’s something to warrant a measure of concern, mate,”

“Taxi!” Giles cried out. A dingy yellow cab pulled up,

“Yo, where you headed?” the cabbie asked.

“Fifth avenue and 92nd street and quickly!” Giles urged as he opened the door turning to Spike.

“No, I’m worried that Rabbi Mesha, the real Rabbi Mesha may have indeed created something and now that he’s dead it’s loose and completely out of control,”

Spike stopped at that thought. A berserk colossus of death, nearly invulnerable, that the world had not seen for the last four hundred plus years, and its creator, the only person capable of reigning it in, dead as three-week-old Chinese food.

“Oh…sod!” he muttered before getting into the cab.

Giles and Spike crept underneath the soiled yellow police tape surrounding the ruins of what had once been the synagogue.

“I can’t believe we’re coming back here,” Spike muttered as he cast his eyes back and forth. Far from the tranquil feeling they had all experienced upon first seeing it, in what felt like a hundred lifetimes ago, now there was the scent of death and violence in the air. Buffy and Alec’s experience within the Nightmare Realm, the police, the Dahaka, all of it had left some kind of…emotional bloodstain that gave Spike the creeps,

“We need to see if Rabbi Mesha left some kind of diary, a journal, any kind of evidence that would point to whether or not he has in fact created a golem,” Giles replied. They reached the large wooden doors, now pitted with bullet holes from the police and chained heavily,

“Spike, if you would?” Giles asked politely. Spike sighed, and then hauled himself up the stairs towards the looming door. Swallowing his fear, he spit on his hands, he took hold of the dirty chains and with a grunt yanked hard, snapping them. Tossing them aside he gripped the door handles and pulled.

A gust of air, and Spike winced expecting the stench of decay,

“Ugh!” he exclaimed then frowned. There was no scent of decay, only the scent of a strange and oddly pleasing incense, “Wait, no, no ugh, confusion,” Spike frowned and peered inside, Giles coming up beside him,

The temple had been cleaned up nicely. From what Buffy had told them about their expulsion from the Nightmare realm, the two men expected a mess of shattered glass and dried blood. Instead the stones of the floor were clean; the ruined stained glass window was boarded up and the candles were lit. Spike gestured to the boarded up window, a good thirty feet up in the air,

“Hey, how do you suppose someone got up there and fixed that?” He asked wryly.

“Oh, I imagine, with wings,” Giles replied. Spike frowned, there was an odd, strained note in the man’s voice and it took Spike a moment to place it: fear. He turned,

“What are you on about ma-?” he stopped as Giles simply pointed.

Looming above them both was the silhouette of a creature backlit and projected in front of them; Horns, claws, and great bat-like wings that extended with a ‘whoosh’ of air. The candles in the temple flickered as the shadow of the creature spread out to overcome the pair past them and all the way up to halfway above the alter at the far end of the temple. Spike sighed,

“It’s big, isn’t it?” he asked. Giles nodded,

“Yes.”

“And right behind us?”

“Yes Spike I believe it is,”

There was a low growl and the sound of claws on stone,

“It doesn’t sound happy to see us,” Spike observed.

“No, no it doesn’t Spike,” Giles confirmed. Spike sighed

“Oh well, might as well go say hi,” Spike casually turned around, Giles more slowly. Both men looked up to second floor balcony,





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