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Alec heard the rustling of cloth a fraction of a second too late and as he turned, a searing pain lanced through his back and side. He screamed in pain and pitched forward onto his knees, blood pouring out of him. He felt cold suddenly and as his legs gave way, his last sight was of the bandaged man wielding an axe stained with his own blood.

With a cackle, the Bandaged Man raised the axe up again over the prone man, ready to finish the deed.

And then with a scream of rage, Buffy plowed into the man like a blond freight train.

“You…son of a BITCH!” she screeched and slammed a fist hard into the man’s gut. Bones gave way with a wet sound as the man folded over hard at the waist. Buffy formed a hammer-fist and slammed upward hard, shattering the man’s nose and lifting him off his feet.

“Die!” she screamed, tearing a rusted towel rack out of the wall and bludgeoning the man with it over and over again. Through the haze of red, Buffy could hear the man cackling still.

Buffy brought up the makeshift weapon up one more time…and with another cackle, the bloodied man melted into the floor leaving only a black stain.

“No!” Buffy cursed throwing the metal rod hard against the floor in frustration.

“Ooooh….man,” a weak voice rasped. Buffy gasped and ran over to her brother, kneeling down and trying to ignore the amount of blood on the floor,

“You’re alive!” she cried out. Alec smiled slightly, very weak. Buffy peered at the axe wound; it was quite deep and she could see the dark slick of muscle tissue and beneath that, the off-yellow of a badly broken rib. Already though, the damaged tissue was starting to mend itself and in a few moments, the blood flow stopped entirely as the wound slowly began to heal.

“Looks like you caught most of it on a rib,” she commented. Alec nodded and coughed weakly, then checking his lips for blood.

“No blood, I don’t think any vitals were damaged,” he replied.

“Can you move?” she asked gently as she tried to clean some of the blood off his face. Alec cocked an eyebrow,

“What’s my motivation?” he rasped wryly. Buffy snorted gently,

“Survival,” she replied. Alec nodded and swallowed hard,

“Then, yes. I can move,” he replied evenly. He struggled to sit up and Buffy helped him up into a sitting position,

“I can move,” he amended, “with a little help,” Buffy nodded and put his arm over her and hoisted him up to his feet. Alec groaned loudly as still-healing muscle tissue screamed in protest.

“This sucks,” he commented. Buffy nodded,

“Amen,” she replied as she helped her brother out of the ruined bathroom and back into the red-tainted skies of the nightmare realm.

As the pair hobbled out of the ruins of the house, Alec spared a look backwards and snorted weakly,

“What is it?” Buffy asked as she craned her neck to see.

The house was gone.

“All those who are not surprised…or not suffering from an axe wound, raise your hand,” Alec commented wryly. Buffy chuckled and then gasped as Alec's legs fell out of from under him. Buffy lurched, catching him and lowering him to the ground.

“I think I’m in trouble,” Alec commented, coughing again, “My legs are completely numb, either from blood loss or nerve damage,”

“Let’s hope blood loss,” Buffy whispered, sounding very worried as she stroked her brother’s face gently,

Alec nodded then his eyes widened,

“Hey Buffy, when did we wind up on top of a lake?”

Buffy frowned and looked down, then gasped, as her mind comprehended what Alec was talking about. Where there was once ground, now Alec and Buffy were upon a still pool of deep red water.

Or what she thought may have been water, carefully and still not understanding completely how they were managing to be resting on TOP of the surface of the water, she ran her fingers over it and brought them back, a red and very familiar smear coated her fingertips, she sniffed it then winced,

“Blood,” she stated flatly. Alec chuckled,

“No thanks, sis, I’m full.” Buffy looked down and gasped as she realized she was dripping blood on Alec’s face from her fingers. Hurriedly she wiped it off and as she leaned over, Alec looked up past her and froze.

“Uh-oh,” he croaked. Buffy spun around,

Three forms clawed their way up from underneath the ocean of blood. The first was the bandaged man, cackling with axe in tow, the second: the mother, dead blue skin and wielding a straight razor that glittered red.

But the third was a hulking beast, bulbous and covered in a gray flabby hide with tufts of hair that sprung out from various portions of its body. Warts and sores oozed pus freely as it gurgled and belched, producing what looked like an oversized baseball bat in its huge meaty hands.

“Oh this is going to suck,” she growled getting to her feet as the horribly misshapen creatures began to flank her, cackling and snarling.

“Last time I had dreams like this, three-day old nachos were involved,” she quipped to cover her fear.

“These are the bad people,” a voice informed her from behind. She spared a look back to see Seth sitting cross-legged on the surface of the blood.

“Thanks for the tip, ki-,”

“Behind you!” Alec yelled out. Buffy turned just in time to dodge the mother’s glittering straight razor, Buffy gasped and fell back as the zombie-like corpse screeched in rage and hissed at her slashing with the razor and clawing at the air with dirty broken fingernails. Buffy dodged and smashed her palm into the woman’s nose, the creature screeched, falling back…

…and without warning the axe blade came down slicing open the top of Buffy’s hand almost down to the bone. She cried out and clutched her wounded hand to her as the cackling bandaged man swung and chopped, the blade of the axe gleaming bright red against the ocean of blood. Buffy fell back against the onslaught and raised her uninjured hand to ward off what was to be a deadly blow when suddenly the demon’s feet shot out from underneath it and he crashed to the floor his axe spinning away, two tendrils of darkness wrapped around his feet.

“Sibling Slayer team: One, Freddy Krugger: Zero,” Alec commented wryly. Buffy nodded in appreciation then started as the hulking monster, which could only be the father of this group roared and brought his bat down hard. The crack of impact was deafening but even more devastating were the effects as a shockwave rise high and hard racing towards the siblings. Buffy leapt high into the air to avoid the crushing wave and noticed that the axe the laughing demon dropped was sent flying up and then crashing down punching through the surface of the blood and sinking out of sight.

And then the wave reached Alec, and with a thunderbolt blast of horror, she realized that in his weakened condition there’d be no way he could avoid it.

“ALEC!!!” she screamed. The younger Giles watched the approaching wave with almost a wry smile,

Go get them, sis he had time to think. And then the wave hit. He bounced high into the air, every bone in his body cracking and then breaking; he dimly felt the sensation of flying and then landing on something that gave way. His vision was filled with red, his lungs with coppery salt and then nothing.

Too tired to even cry, Buffy watched her brother sink beneath the crimson surface of the blood as the last ripples from the monsters' attack faded. She landed and looked at them all with cold, dead eyes.

“You’re all dead,” she informed them simply, and then with a war cry she charged.

She reached the woman first. Batting aside the razor, she grappled with her, putting her arm in a lock and then with a violent twist broke it. The woman shrieked in pain as Buffy plucked the razor form her limp hand, reversed the grip and with a backhand spin drove the razor into the creature’s eye. The monster fell to its knees clutching at its ruined eye socket as Buffy placed both of her hands on either side of her head and twisted hard. There was a snap and the creature lay still.

She turned to face the other two demons when her side exploded into a white light of pain. She flew through the air and landed hard on the slippery liquid surface, skidding across it and coating herself in blood. She coughed hard, feeling things broken inside. There was blood on her lips, salty and metallic, whether it was a result from internal injuries or just her landing she didn’t know.

Weakly, she looked through swollen eyes to see the bulky form of father monster finishing it's follow through from the blow of the bat that had sent her flying. The cackling bandaged demon by comparison seemed almost lost without its trademark axe, but then it threw its head back, stringy black hair flowing out behind it and laughed high and insane as barbed claws grew out from underneath its fingertips.

Buffy coughed wetly as she watched the two advance on her,

“Neat trick,” she commented dryly as she struggled to her feet to attack the two oncoming demons.

She came in hard snapping a kick to the head of the bandaged monster, then dodging out of the way as the ham-sized fists of the father monster which came crashing down with enough force to split her skull. She traded blows with the smaller of the two, trying to keep it between herself and the hulking abomination that even now was grunting and glaring, looking for another chance to brutalize the young girl.

The bandaged monster came in cackling wildly with its claws; Buffy dodged and repaid in kind smashing her fists over and over into the creatures abdomen and head, it continued to laugh but there was definitely a note of desperation as Buffy beat it severely, breaking bones with every blow.

Finally the bandaged creature, wounded and broken and with a hysterical shriek lunged at the slayer. She caught its wrists high and the two strained against each other mightily, maimed and bleeding. With agonizing slowness, Buffy brought the clawed hands down to mid level and met the gaze from behind the soiled bandages.

Those eyes held fear, and misery and a plea for release.

Buffy was stunned by what she saw, so much so that she didn’t hear the hulking abomination behind her. The creature roared and lunged at the vulnerable slayer…and with a snarl Buffy twisted the arms of the bandaged creature and drove its claws right up into the guts of the hulking monster behind her.

“DIE!” she screamed, the words tearing her throat with its rage and spitting a glob of blood onto the hulking beast as it wailed in pain. She pushed the other creature's claws deeper and deeper into its flabby flesh as the bandaged monster bizarrely laughed even louder as it was unwittingly killing its compatriot.

With a roar, the father creature smashed them both aside; Buffy fell to the “ground” spent, and the bandaged demon collapsed under the blow as the father creature likewise fell back clutching at its oversized belly. Buffy weakly sat up and watched the trio in shock. The bandaged with its skeleton almost broken by the blow, bits of ragged bone peeking out of its body; the father, partially gutted with one meaty hand clutching its stomach trying to keep everything in; and with a look of dread amazement, Buffy watched the mother monster as it got to its feet, head lolling crazily, the razor still embedded in its eye socket and lurch/stumbled towards her.

The bandaged demon, shambling towards Buffy, lashed out with a gory arm and bandages leaped form its body to wrap around the Slayer’s legs. She struggled weakly as she was dragged towards the demonic trio. She felt herself being lifted up as her body was suspended and splayed by the ever-tightening bandages spooling off the creature’s body. She opened her eyes and saw that her arms and legs we bound and splayed wide in all four directions, her bones and muscles throbbed in pain. She lolled her head from side to side in pain-filled delirium and despair. Her brother was dead and she was next, it would be so easy to just.

No.

She may die, but she’d be damned before she surrendered.

She shook her head to clear the blood from her vision and watched. The scenario was depressingly clear. While the bandaged monster kept her bound and splayed, mommy and daddy were going to finish her off. She watched nauseated as the mother monster pulled the razor from her eye, black ooze pouring out of the wound as she prepared to return the favor to Buffy. The father demon readied the huge splintered bat for the final blow; Buffy could actually see where her blood stained the wood.

And then Seth walked in front of her, his eyes filled with…something.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered and then it clicked.

Buffy opened her mouth to speak when the mother demon lashed out with the razor. Straining, fueled by pain and rage and shock, she felt her shoulders pop as the joints gave way, the ligaments tearing with a red- hot ripping sensation. The blade passed through where Buffy’s face had been not a moment before and sliced through one of the bandages binding her. It wasn’t much but it was enough; Buffy ducked as the mother creature fell forward, overextended and right into the path of the oncoming bat swung by the father monster. The bat crunched into the skull of the dead woman, her skull compressed instantly and with a wet shriek she dropped as the bat bounced off her skull out of control.

Buffy wrapped her arm around the cut bandage and pulled hard, the bandaged demon stop laughing abruptly as, weakened and wounded as it was, could not keep from stumbling forward right into the path of the wayward bat. The creature shrieked as its bones which were already broken and battered, were jellied on impact. Buffy grabbed the broken monster and, swinging it like a club, struck the bat, ricocheting it into its wielder’s face. The enormous monster wailed in pain as its own bat pulverized its face and it toppled to the ground.

Her bindings long gone slack, Buffy pulled herself free and toppled away from the bloodied trio. She stared at Seth in shock. Wordlessly the young boy pointed behind her, his face calm. Buffy turned and choked out a sob as the trio got back up. No longer even remotely whole looking, they resembled nothing so much as car accident victims that had been given animation. Their bones pulped, their organs split, their guts pierced, the bloody trio shambled towards Buffy, mouths open and making horrible gurgling sounds.

“They can’t be stopped. I’m sorry,” Seth said, his little boy voice breaking into a near sob. Buffy looked blankly in near shock as one of them reached towards her.

And with an explosion of blood that sprayed Buffy’s back in gore, Seth screamed. Buffy spun around to see Alec standing there, covered in blood from head to toe and wielding the axe that had been dropped.

Which was now embedded in Seth.

Seth tried to look behind him in shock, his little eyes wide in shock.

“W…why?” he asked stunned at his murderer. Alec gave no reply instead with a feral snarl he tore the blade from the boy’s body. Seth looked down at himself then back at Buffy, whose eyes were wide with shock and horror.

Then he crumpled to the ground and lay still.

There was an ear-piercing shriek Buffy wrenched her gaze away from the horrific sight only to be greeted by a second one. The trio of monsters had split open right down the middle, even more blood sprayed out of them like a geyser as they wailed and thrashed in their death throes.

First the mother dropped, its body split down the middle and oozing red blood this time, not black. It flopped much like a beached fish its mouth opening and closing rapidly making gasping noises before it lay still. It proceeded to sink beneath the blood.

The father dropped next with a colossal impact sending ripples through the multiple rolls of fat around its grotesque belly, which had also been split open down to the bone. It likewise sank underneath the surface.

Finally, the bandages from around the last monster’s head began to unravel, revealing a young man with a scarred and pitted face accompanied by haunted eyes.

“Seth,” Buffy whispered. The elder Seth almost smiled before lightly touching his own mortal wound. Then he collapsed and lay still. Buffy turned to face the child Seth. Coated in blood, he too was dead.

She knelt by Alec, whose breathing was shallow and pained, much like her own. Alec took her bloody hand in his,

“I’m sorry, Buffy. I had to do…what needed to be done,” he whispered, his face and tone spoke of volumes of pain. Buffy just nodded, resting her cheek on his chest. The two were so thoroughly saturated with blood they barely noticed it anymore. She closed her eyes and felt his chest rise and fall rapidly; she could hear his breath rattling painfully in his body and feel her own doing the same.

A gasp from Alec caused her to turn to look and tears sprung in her eyes.

It was a sunrise. A bright cleansing sun rising over the horizon of blood, bathing their battered bodies in beautiful gentle light, banishing their horror and pain, it warmed them and she clung to her brother as their two hearts filled with hope that rose, just as a sun now rose over this place of nightmares to herald the coming dawn and glory.

Suddenly, with a rush of blood, a whirlpool began to take shape. Buffy, too tired to feel anything, simply held her brother tightly and felt him hold her just as tightly. They bodies slid around and around as they clung to each other, neither tearing their eyes from the awesome spectacle of the sunrise. Their hands entwined, knuckles white. And as brother and sister, they disappeared under the whirling waves and vanished.

Together and alive.

It began as a sub-sonic rumble, more felt than heard; then the rumbling grew, became violent, candelabras toppled, chairs tipped and fell and with an explosion of glass, the stained glass window dominating the space above the altar erupted in a deluge of blood depositing the two battered warriors onto the stone floor below. Buffy coughed and spat up blood rolling onto her hands and knees, pushing aside her gore-matted hair.

“I’m going to be cream-rinsing for a week,” she grumbled before wincing in pain, touching her broken ribs and myriad of other injuries gingerly. She looked around and spied her brother in a sitting position propped up against a wall, chin resting lightly against his chest. She crawled to him and stroked his hair back.

“Hey? Alec?” she whispered. She took his hand in hers and pressed the palm to her face. Smiling, she felt the fingers lightly stroke her cheek. Alec took her bloody hand in his and kissed it. Buffy giggled and made a face.

“Yuck,” she commented. Then he grinned and with a whoop, Buffy leapt into his arms hugging him tightly, tears leaking down her face, washing away the blood from her eyes and leaving twin trails of clean skin in their wakes.

“I thought I’d lost you,” she whispered hoarsely. Alec shook his head and kissed her hair gently. “I love you, big brother,”

“I love you too, kid sister,” he replied. They held each other like that for a few moments, each taking a moment to cry and rid themselves of the horror of the nightmare world. Their tears were cool and pure, like water for a fevered man, they washed away the pain and in their wake left peace and the knowledge that they had won and they were alive.

After a while, the tears ceased and they looked into each other’s face for a moment.

“You know, you kind of look like Sissy Spacek at the end of “Carrie,” Alec commented dryly reaching out to clean the blood off her face with his hand. Buffy chuckled and wiped some blood from Alec’s face.

“Hell, so do you, Alec,” She replied smiling, deliberately rubbing her hand against his eyes and nose. He swatted her hand away and placed a kiss on it, chuckling.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, everyone’s a critic. Can you walk?” he asked her. Buffy nodded and got to her feet slowly and very unsteadily. She turned to look down at her brother,

“Okay, that’s me. How about you?” she asked. Alec chuckled and nodded,

“Yeah, just give me a second to get the pins and needles out of my legs from you sitting on them,” he retorted wryly then stopped when he noticed the look on Buffy’s face.

“What?” he asked.

“I haven’t been sitting on your legs,” she replied quietly. Alec frowned in disbelief,

“But…I can’t feel my legs” he whispered. He struggled to his feet trying to push himself up, with a cry Buffy raced to him helping him to his feet…only to have to hold him up as his legs gave way from underneath him.

“My legs…I can’t…move my legs,” Alec talked, pale and terrified. Buffy shook her head violently,

“It’s nothing. We’ll wait until your regenerative abilities kick in,” she began to cry as over and over she’d lift him up only to have him fall. Finally in a cry of frustration, she dropped him he landed heavily into a chair cracking his back against the wood. Buffy sank to her knees weeping,

“No, oh no, oh Alec, oh I’m so sorry,” she looked up at him her eyes tear stained, “It’s my fault. I should have covered you when that thing smashed the ground and the shockwave came,”

“You didn’t have time,” Alec replied evenly, regaining some of his composure. “If you had tried to make it back to me, the shockwave would have hit us both and we would both be dead,” he took her chin and forced her eyes to meet his, “You saved us, and I for one am grateful.” He looked down at his now-useless legs, “Besides, Spike managed to recover from his time in a wheelchair and if that great lout can…” he smiled.

Buffy despite herself laughed and wiped at her eyes, “Cheap shot, but okay. Maybe Willow or Marlena can do something about it,” Alec nodded, clinging to that hope as well.

Buffy reached down and helped her brother to his feet. He grunted in pain as she looked around the now blood-stained temple,

“Boy, that Rabbi is going to be….” Her voice trailed off as she and her brother had the same thought.

“I was wondering where he’d gone,” Alec mumbled quietly as they scanned the room for any sign of the young Rabbi. Buffy gestured to a door then lurched as the movement threw the weakened pair off balance. She placed a hand steadying on his chest and nodded towards the door.

“Let’s try there,” the pair hobbled towards the door, upon reaching it Buffy grasped the doorknob and twisted hard.

“Locked,” she commented rubbing her hand gingerly and trying to cover the wound on top of it at the same time. Alec lurched forward and plowed a large steel hammerhead into the door splintering it and sending it flying open. A rancid smell nearly bowled them both over. Buffy nearly retched but was mindful of dropping her brother, who was busy transmuting the hammer back into a hand.

Lying face down on the floor was the body of a young man dressed in the trappings of a Rabbi.

“Uh-oh,” Buffy commented, Alec peered at the corpse,

“Judging by the flies, condition of the corpse and the-“ he coughed, “-smell. I’d say this man’s been dead a good long while.” Conjuring a sword-blade from his hand, he gently slid the flat of the blade up under the face of the corpse to turn it over, then frowned when he felt resistance.

“Uh, it’s stuck,” he commented. Buffy made a face,

“Could this get any more yucky?” She asked, helping Alec get a better leverage and together, putting their weight behind it.

There was a loud ripping sound and with a thump, the body flopped over onto its back. Buffy immediately retched with Alec not far behind.

The front half of the skull was missing. Not only the face but the muscle tissue and even the front of the skull was gone. It was if his entire face down to the brain was scooped out of his head.

Coughing, trying to ignore the smell coming out of the cadaver, as well as the shreds of flesh lingering on the floor where the body has been fused to the floor, Alec leaned over as best he could and fingered a medallion; the Star of David, around the corpses neck.

“This is definitely the Rabbi and he’s been dead a heck of a lot longer than we were gone,” he informed his pale sister.

“Which means the Rabbi we met was an imposter,” she replied. Alec sighed,

“Houston, we have a problem.”

The ragged pair, still caked in dried blood from their time in the Nightmare Realm, hobbled towards the doors. Buffy, still carrying her now-paralyzed brother leaned forward to open it.

An explosion of light followed by a deafening roar as a spotlight from a helicopter painted them in a burst of blinding light. Buffy and Alec shielded their eyes vainly, blinking back a world of multi-colored blobs from their eyes. As their vision cleared, an amplified voice rang out,

“This is the NYPD, throw down your weapons and lie down on your stomachs. Now!”

“Yes, Houston,” Alec commented stunned at the sea of shotgun-toting policemen that had appeared, “We definitely have a problem.”





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