Chapter Sixteen

Breaking into the Antiquities Store the second time was far easier than the first as it was territory already marked. In truth, Sam had no idea how long they really had before the cops came to the store so whatever they had to do here, they had to do quickly. They hadn't found anything in the initial search but with the cube in their possession, they might have better luck on a second try. At least, they didn't have to worry about Scheckly interrupting them anymore.

"You think that there's something on the tape huh?" Faith asked, impressed that he'd grabbed the thing because she honestly hadn't thought about it. She'd seen it earlier and wondered who used tapes anymore? Then again, she was accustomed to being the brawn in most operations and was content to leave strategy to Giles and the Watchers. Faith was capable of thinking fast when she had to but she preferred to leave the long con to those who were better at it than she.

"He brought it home for a reason," Sam pointed out as he swept his gaze across the inside of the back office searching for where Scheckly would play the thing, "He must want to hide it because I didn't see a video player in there, did you?"

Faith had to say no.

"Besides," Sam said with with a little smile, "know anyone else with a video player?"

"True," Faith agreed and started studying some of the frames Scheckly had hung on his walls. She saw a business license, a local merchant award and other were pictures of Scheckly's life while he played human. There were pictures with friends, with the people he'd worked and the opening of the Antiquities store. There was even a picture of the house that she and Sam had just laid waste to. He should have just told us how get B and big bro back and he could have keep living, Faith thought when her eyes caught sight of something that had her calling for Sam.

"Sammy!"

There was something urgent in her tone that made him stop loading the tape into the video player he'd found and cross the floor immediately to her side. She was staring intently at a news clipping that Scheckly had framed on the wall. It was an old article about a freak storm that had originated somewhere in California about twelve years ago. Aside from being uncharacteristically violent, it had produced all manner of unexplained seismic and atmospheric anomalies for the season and climate. Sam supposed it resembled some of the phenomena that had taken place when Lucifer walked the Earth and the Apocalypse was still happening but this had happened years before that.

"What is it?" He asked puzzled, wondering what it was she was seeing that he didn't.

"This is dated 22nd May 2001," Faith declared, staring at him and then realising the date would not have any significance to anyone unless they were a slayer.

"I'm not following you," Sam looked at her puzzled.

"This is the day when B died." Faith declared. "She was fighting this Big Bad called Glory, some hell bitch from another dimension. Glory's deal was that she was trying to get back to her hell dimension and to do that she had to bring down the walls to all the dimensions."

"Okay...." Sam said slowly, stilll needing more information to comprehend the urgency of what she was trying to tell him. Still talk of dimensional walls opened up some rather interesting possibilities. Max Planck in 1900 had theorized that beyond quantum mechanics that were forces at work in the universe that human kind had yet to discover and Hugh Everett's Many Worlds theory was gaining traction. It didn't surprise Sam that the supernatural world would have more defining proof.

"There was a moment when Glory actually did it," Faith explained, growing impatient because explanations were out of her comfort zone. "The walls came down and stuff started coming through. Buffy was able to close it because the guys that made the Key that opened it, used her DNA. What if they got it mostly right but not quite?"

Sam had a dozen more questions but for the moment he was managing to follow. If the ritual to close it hadn't been exactly right, there was a possibility the closure hadn't been as air tight as they thought and there were cracks, just large enough to let two or more universes to merge since different versions couldn’t exist in the same space without causing entrophy. Suddenly in a flash of insight that didn't just open a door in his mind but flooded it, Sam understood.

"I think I know what's happened," Sam stared at her, taking a step back. "That's why we haven't heard about Slayers and why you don't know what Hunters are or know about the Apocalypse. It’s why none of the stuff you've been through appeared on our radar and vice versa. You said this Glory tried to bring down the walls and maybe Buffy's blood didn't quite close it as tight as you thought. So what if maybe one or two of the dimensions merged? Got folded into one new universe where no one knew there was a change. Scheckly might have come through from this Razor Realm of his and got stuck here or maybe he was from your world or ours, whatever."

Faith leaned against a shelf and nodded, "that would explain why the Watchers had no intel on what was happening in Stull Cemetery three years ago. It came at them from nowhere and by the time they figured it out it was too late. I mean your demons are freaky powerful and from hell. The actual hell while ours come from hell dimensions that don't always have the fire and the brimstone. I know one who does a lounge act in Vegas and might be gay."

For some reason, Sam actually wanted to see that.

The enormity of their discovery was such that Sam still had trouble believing it and yet he knew in his gut that it was the reason why things were the way they were. There was no other reasonable explanation for why there would need to be hunters in the world if there were slayers protecting humans from demons and vampires. Why the Men of Letters and the Watcher Council would utterly ignorant of each other.

"We'll figure the rest of this out later," Sam finally spoke. "First things first, let's get Buffy and Dean back here." He went back to the video played that sat in the corner of the room next to the desk.

Pressing play, the monochromatic image appeared and thankfully had sound. Faith drifted over, standing next to him as they watched the tape beginning to play. Sam searched the cabinet where it was kept and found the remote control, so he could hit the fast forward button when needed. The screen showed typical footage from a store security camera. Capturing a segment of time around the space Sam immediately recognised as the juncture where the cube had been, it showed all the foot traffic through the day. The image was too fuzzy for him to see the object but he was sure the place was right.

"That's where it was," Sam explained and pressed the fast forward button on the remote, immediately causing the images to speed up. He kept his finger on the button for a good ten minutes as they watched the patrons moving in and out of the frame. Few paused long enough to observe the cube on its shelf, most were walking to other parts of the store.

"There!" Faith exclaimed when Buffy and Dean finally came into view.

Faith leaned forward, taking her first look at Dean Winchester before tossing a look at Sam. "That's your big brother?" She raised a brow. "You don't look alike."

"You're not the first to say that," he agreed, having had enough people thinking that he and Dean were a gay couple. What was up with that? Sam put up the volume to heard them talking. The audio wasn't terrific but it was clear enough to hear the duo talking.

"Let’s hope this works better than condoms…you know like 99 percent effective?”

“God Winchester! Gross.”

“How can you gank vamps and monsters the way you do and still sound you should be collecting unicorn stickers and princess dolls?”

"You are such a boy."

"I'm all man baby......Now get your phone out and send a picture of this to Sam. That will give him something more to go on. Then I say we get this thing out of here and go lock it down at your place. Just in case the gloves don’t work, the last thing I want is for my worst fear to show up when I’m not near Sam.”

Faith was laughing watching the banter between the two. It appeared that Dean Winchester was more than capable of ruffling Queen B's feathers which was what the blond slayer needed sometimes. Buffy's relationship with Angel had been so tragic and forbidden there wasn't much fun in it. It was probably why Buffy gravitated towards Spike later, at least Spike gave as good as he got.

"I'm telling you I'm keeping this tape when we're done. Gotta to put this on Facebook for Willow and Xander," Faith smirked.

"It’s not funny," Sam threw her a look of disapproval although it was rare to see Dean trying so hard to impress any girl which told him the depth of his brother's feelings for Buffy. However he did not miss what Dean had said about his brother's fears involving him and that too was no mystery to Sam because he knew his brother, knew what frightened him.

They got to the part in the tape where Scheckly had confronted them and the door to the Razor Realm had opened. Scheckly had recited his words, sweeping Buffy and Dean out of this world and into another. When they vanished in a burst of light, Sam saw that the portal remained opened for a second after they disappeared before Scheckly recited a final phrase and then the portal closed.

"Damn," Faith whispered, no longer finding any humour in the situation.

"Yeah," Sam agreed thinking silently about what was to be done.

"We need to open the portal and find them," Faith declared.

"It’s not that simple," Sam replied, although it really was but he'd foresaw other problems. "We don't know what this Razor Realm is like and it’s been hours since they've been gone. This is another dimension, we need to get in there and find them. I think that last phrase is how he closes it but that would mean we'll need to go through with the cube, find Buffy and Dean and then use it to come back again."

"What we need is a locator spell once we go through," Faith declared, "and I know just how to get one."

******

Convinced it was safe to do so, Dean approached the dead snake demon lying across the section of the massive wall that it had smashed into during its final battle. The deep green colour of its scales had started to turn grey and mottled while its blood created a slick, black pool that spread out from the multiple wounds in its body. Dean winched at the stench of rancid blood that was near stomach turning and he shot Buffy a look of sympathy who was covered in the stuff as she walked next to him, using the last of her wet wipes to get clean.

"How you doing?" He asked her gently. Slayer or not, she was still very much a girl and even though she could kick his ass from here to kingdom come, Dean still protective towards her because she was somewhere he cared about.

"Fine." Buffy replied as she fished through the contents of her handbag to produce a can of deodorant which she sprayed on herself to mask the awful stink of demon blood still clinging to her.

"Are you actually fine or is that chick speak for 'I'm pissed at you but won't tell you why'?" He waggled his eyebrows at her.

Buffy gave him a look and replied haughtily, "I'm not mad at you. I'm worried about this place. What if this is the whole Razor Realm?" Buffy swept her gaze across the expanse of endless corridors and her expression softened with worry.

Dean had considered the possibility, actually more than considered it. He was starting to share her concerns about their situation although he was trying to sound more optimistic about it. In Purgatory, even if it was ass, it was still survivable. The savage landscape had been capable of sustaining life. There was running water, wood to burn, fish in the rivers and plant life. It was a a rough, brutal existence but it was something. There was nothing like that here. True, they hadn't gotten hungry or felt thirsty which they ought to have been by now but that didn't mean anything.

Were their bodily requirements placed on hold while they fought every monster in the place? How long could they keep it up? Worse yet, it was likely that he'd go first. She was the Slayer, she was built for this and she'd survived even if he didn't. Dean wasn't afraid of dying but the idea of Buffy wandering this place alone if he was taken out was more than he could stand.

"Come on," he took of her hand as he moved past the dead demon and neared the wall the creature had ruined. Large chunks of obsidian coloured marble had crumbled into pile tall enough to reach the top of the wall. Dean started climbing up the mound of broken rock, letting go of Buffy because he needed both hands to reach the top. Carefully testing his weight the higher he got, he paused whenever something felt it was going to give or some of the debris shifted and tumbled to the ground like the flow of an avalanche.

When Buffy realised what he intended, she held back for the moment. When he was almost to the top, she followed him up, ensuring that their weight was distributed evenly enough to prevent the pile from collpasing entirely. As she scaled up the side of it to reach the top of wall, she felt the debris pile shuddered slightly but remained intact as she climbed the rest of the way.

When Buffy stepped onto the wall, she stopped short at the sight of Dean standing on the wall, his back to her. He was simply standing there, saying nothing, his spine ram rod straight.

The height of the wall gave Dean a sweeping view of everything for miles, until the landscape disappeared into the dark horizon and there was nothing left to see. It was a view he wished he had not seen because when he heard Buffy climbing up behind him, he had no idea what to say to her.When he turned around, he saw no need to make excuses or lie, her face told him she already knew that something was wrong.

"What is it?" She asked, her voice soft as if she didn't want to know but Dean knew better.

Dean wanted to lie to her, he wanted to tell her that everything was okay but he couldn't. Lies were treacherous things and some truths, such as the one that confronted them now, was too big to hide. Dean didn't have the energy to try and truth be told, the ability to be honest with her was one of the things he treasured about being with her. With Buffy there was no need to bullshit. She wanted the facts laid bare and most of the time she could take it. He admired that.

With a sigh, he stepped aside, so that she could see, his eyes full of regret because he felt responsible for this, like he should have gotten them out of this already and because he had no answers for her.

"Oh my god...." Buffy gasped.

Walls. As far as the eye could see. They twisted and turned into a maze that seemed to encompass this stygian world. It stretched across the landscape in every direction, wall to wall, with no sign of end. It was endless. The totality of it took her breath away, made her heart pound in her chest, threaten to fissure her slowly degrading composure. She fixed her eyes on it, trying to find an escape in its far reaches but saw nothing but more of the same, more of that soul crushing continuity. This prison they were in was endless, like a Gordian knot that just pulled them tighter and tighter, no matter how much they tried to escape.

"We'll be okay," she felt his hands on her shoulders, trying to assuage her fears with his tender voice even though she could hear him trying to shake off his own uncertainty. "I know my brother, Sam will get us out of here. He won't stop looking for us." Inwardly, he wasn't so sure about that but he couldn't show her that. A snide voice in his head reminded Dean that Sam had abandoned him to Purgatory for a year.

No, Dean thought silently to himself, Sammy wouldn't do it to me twice. If he couldn't have faith in Sam for that much, then their relationship was damaged beyond repair.

"I know where we are," she said quietly as she turned around to face him, "seeing it from up here, I recognise it. We're in the cube. The walls run the same way the puzzle inside the cube. We're trapped inside it."

Dean looked past her shoulder to the labyrinth of walls surrounding them and tried to see the patterns she had to come to the clusion. It took several seconds buts eventually, he saw that she was right. It was the only explanation for the freakiness of the place. It explained why every monster imaginable was trapped in here with them.

"I think I get it now," Dean said to her, "The son of a bitch who sent us here, he said that the Douche of the Razor Realm collects souls or something. What if, every time someone touches this thing, whatever monster or fear that terrifies them gets stashed in here? Maybe what Scheckly did was to stash us the way the cube stashes its monsters?"

"Right," Buffy nodded, agreeing with that. "So if Sam can figure out how to unlock it, we can get out of here."

"I think so," Dean replied, ready to latch onto that small piece of hope to get them through the next few hours. He could see her anxiety and was reminded once again that she was used to opponents she could see and fight, that relying on someone else to save her was new. Dean smiled at the irony of it because these could have been thoughts in his own head. He knew that if he were here with Sammy, he’d probably react the same as her. However, it wasn’t his brother here; it was Buffy and even if it was some old fashioned chivalry at work, Dean was driven by the need to protect her at all costs.

“We’re gonna get out of this,” he promised her, brushing his thumb gently over her lip. “Sam will come through for us. I know it.”

Buffy didn’t know if Sam was capable of getting them out of this mess but just looking into Dean’s eyes told her that even if she wasn’t sure about Sam, she could be assured of Dean’s unshakeable faith in his brother. He believed Sam would get them out of this insane place and Buffy forced herself to believe it too.

After all, what other alternative was there?

*****

After deciding what was to be done to retrieve Buffy and Dean, Faith and Sam left the Antiquities Store and returned to Buffy’s house where Faith put in a call to Willow Rosenberg. Willow and Buffy had been friends since their Sunnydale days and over the course of their friendship, Willow had developed into an extremely powerful Wiccan who often aided the slayer in her fight against evil. It was further affirmation for Sam that the two worlds occupied by slayers and hunters had somehow merged. In all his experience, Sam had never encountered a witch who used her powers for good as Willow had done.

“Thanks Will,” Sam heard Faith say into her cell when he brought more weapons from the Impala into Buffy’s house. Faith had called Willow in Maine, asking the witch how to conjure up the spell that would help them find Buffy and Dean once they’d passed through the portal. Knowing Buffy and Dean as they did, Faith and Sam believed the two would have started searching for an escape route as soon as they’d become trapped in the Razor Realm, wherever that might lead them.

“Yeah I’ve got it in my phone,” Faith continued to speak. “The guy I’m with is into the rituals and spell thing so he should be able to figure it out…that’s right, he’s one of these hunters Buffy told the G-Man about.” She paused a second and threw Sam, who was putting down shotguns and ammunition on the coffee table, a furtive look followed by a slow smile. “Yeah, he is pretty cute… just like his big brother.” Faith laughed as she heard Willow’s response. “Definitely a bad boy hottie and Buffy’s type.”

Sam almost blushed when he saw Faith winking at him with that coquettish smile before he turned away, concentrating on loading the shotguns, trying not to listen to the conversation she was having with Willow. With all the things they’d been through together in the last few hours, it was easy to forget that Faith wasn’t just another hunter. She was a slayer who was born to this life and revelled in the power at her disposal to rid the world of monsters, which she did with remarkable efficiency and ruthlessness and yet could flirt like any girl. Sam was unable to deny that he was very attracted to her as she was very much his ‘type’.

However, he didn’t know how to take her forward passes, especially when she revealed that it was normal for her to experience heightened levels of arousal after killing monsters. Sam of course, was interested. Faith was seductive and assertive, two qualities he found hard to resist in the opposite sex. However, beyond the immediate urgency of retrieving Buffy and Dean, Sam was painfully aware of the effect the trials were having on him and was hesitant to start something with Faith when it was possible that he might not recover after they were done.

“Yeah I don’t think they’re wine and cheese type Willow,” Faith remarked meeting Sam’s gaze and gesturing with her hands that she was almost done. “Gotta run Willow, I’ll get B to give you a call if this all goes well.” With that, Faith ended the call, slipping the phone back into her coat.

“Wine and cheese?” Sam asked with a curious expression.

“Yeah,” Faith shrugged. “Willow wanted to know if we can get together after all of this is done for wine and cheese. The girl’s in serious couples dating mode. She needs to stop hanging around all those Wiccans.”

Sam gave her a look and decided it was best not to comment, focussing instead on the reason for the call. "Uh what did she say about the spell?” Sam asked, trying to shake the thought of Dean Winchester on a double date with a gay witch and her partner because it was making his brain discombobulate.

“Well she texted it to me,” Faith answered, patting the phone in her pocket and approaching the weapons to examine them closer. These Winchesters loved their guns, Faith decided as she admired the shotguns on the coffee table. Then again, a shotgun had blown Scheckly to pieces before he could rip her to shreds so she wasn’t about to question their effectiveness. Besides, she could understand why the hunters would need guns since they were all ordinary humans with no powers of any kind. If the guns gave them the edge to stay alive, then Faith had no complaints.

“She says the minute we go through, I should perform the spell on the other side so that we can use the radiant energies from the dissipating portal to fuel it and get us to B and your bro.”

It did make some kind of sense to Sam though he didn’t understand all aspects of it. However, Faith had vouched for Willow’s effectiveness so he wasn’t about to debate the matter. If anything, he was eager to begin. “Let’s do this now then,” Sam urged, picking up one of the shotguns and handing it to her, while stuffing the pockets of his jacket with as much ammunition as he could carry.

“You sure we’re going to need all this?” Faith asked, holding the gun in her hand with a look of distaste. Like B, she was used to fighting with less dangerous weapons and was uncomfortable with holding the shotgun.

"Yeah I'm sure," he checked the gun tucked in the back of his jeans and made sure he had the shells for inside his coat pocket. There was no doubt in his mind that they needed all this ordinance. Scheckly had painted a suitably ugly picture of horror when describing the Razor Realm and Sam wasn't stepping into that world without being prepared to face it. "Scheckly said that the Razor Realm collects people's nightmares, that even brief contact with the cube could bring them out. The Razor Realm is where they're all kept so I'm guessing we're going to see some real nasty and personal stuff when we go in."

Faith shuddered inwardly, thinking that she had no desire to see the Mayor again, even there was a part of him that loved the man still. Even if he was a Big Bad, Faith believed he cared for her. Buffy had revealed she used his love of Faith to put him down so that much of it was confirmed. Still, he was a remnant of a past Faith wanted to forget and prayed that he wasn't conjured up in the Razor Realm.

"Let's just do this." She grumbled.

Sam saw the brief shadow that invaded her normally relaxed features and suspected that something he had said about personal demons had struck a chord with her. Faith didn't trust people easily, he got that. Despite her flirting, he guessed she was like Dean in that way, the flippancy and cockiness was a facade for the hurts concealed beneath the surface. It was hard for her to open up and Sam had no desire to intrude on her boundaries even if she appeared afraid right now.

"Hey," he placed a hand on her shoulder, "I have your back where we're going. I promise."

Faith's eyes touched Sam's and once again, she saw that decency radiating from his eyes. There was no expectation in his eyes except the desire to help and knowing that filled with emotion, no ulterior motive like getting laid. It was so much like Angel used to look at her that it hurt. "You're a good guy Sammy," she punched his shoulder lightly.

"I try," Sam replied and did not add that sometimes, he failed. "You okay?" He asked gently.

"Yeah," she nodded, "just having a flashback to not so good times."

"I can relate," Sam confessed. "Okay, let's get started." He said aware that she probably didnt do moments and the best thing to do was to get on with it.

"Right," Faith nodded and shifted her gaze to the faux book/box sitting on the coffee table.

Sam reached for the box and took a few steps back so that he was standing in the centre of the room. Faith joined him, standing beside Sam as he flipped open the lid and reached for the gleaming object inside.

"I'm not sure how this works so hang on to me," Sam advised as he held it in his hand. He knew that he wouldn't start seeing things immediatly. It had taken awhile for Lucifer to show up so he assumed the thing needed time to manifest a person's darkest fears. Sam hoped that they'd rescue Buffy and Dean before that happened. In any case, he sure as hell wasn't letting Faith handle the object if it could be avoided.

Faith wrapped her arm around his and leaned in close, "okay my knight in shinning armour, whisk me to wherever," she joked.

Sam chuckled softly but then remembered what they had to do and stared at the gleaming cube. As he stared at it, he thought he might have seen the exotic designs on its surface, swirling into new patterns. Had it done that before? Sam was certain it didn't but supposed it meant nothing in the scheme of things, not when they were about to plunge into its secrets.

Using the words he'd memerized from Scheckly's security tape, Sam began reciting; “Karahnia Stahs ohla varayna discara unas celea mokturna.”

Suddenly, although not to Sam's surprise because he'd seen what happened on the tape, the cube began to radiate bright white light from the swirling designs across its surface. However, instead of letting it go as Dean had done, Sam tightened his grip. The radiating light did not generate heat because it was still cool to the touch in Sam's palm. Sam didn't look away, forcing him to keep his eyes focussed on the thing as it performed its magic.

The floor beneath them started to shudder and Faith clutched Sam's arm tighter to steady herself. Picture frames shook against the floor, a vase tipped over spilling stinking water and almost dead flowers onto the carpet. Faith was about to demand if this was what was supposed to happen when the confidence in Sam's face, belayed the question and she settled her own anxiousness because he was clearly expecting all this.

The cube opened in his palm and the grotesque figure at its centre began to dance as it had for Buffy and him a day ago. Except this time, there was music to accompany the performance. Everything was happening as it had taken place in the video and Sam had a rough idea of what came next when he saw the figure start to twirl, the spins growing faster and faster.

"Hold on tight!" Sam warned as the strobe light pouring out of the cube expanded to envelope them both.

Faith obeyed and closed her eyes just as the blinding white light reached them. It overloaded her retinas and she had to shut her eyes as the shuddering beneath her feet reached crescendo and then suddenly, the light faded into an abyss of black and she knew no more.

TO BE CONTINUED