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Both Sides Now	By : addielogan Category: BtVS AU/AR > Het - Male/Female Views: 6136 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer (BtVS), nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 30
- 31
- 32
Giles looked up,
startled, as Dawn came bursting into his office. "Dawn, what is�"
Dawn didn't let
him finish before she slammed a notebook and a wrinkled piece of paper on his
desk. "Something's happened to Andrew. Something bad."
Giles pushed his glasses
up on the bridge of his nose. "What makes you think that?"
"I found
this note telling me good-bye because he's leaving with another group of
hell-jumping Watchers."
"Dawn, I'm
sorry, but I'm afraid that's true," Giles told her, his tone soft. "They
left a few hours ago, and Andrew worked it so I wouldn't know he was with them
until it was too late. I'm sorry. I would've stopped him if�"
"No, Giles,
that's not it," Dawn said, shaking her head. "Andrew didn't write
this letter."
Giles sat up
straighter at that. "What? Are you sure?"
"Positive,"
Dawn replied. "This isn't his handwriting. I didn't think it was when I
read the letter, but then I compared it to the handwriting in the notebooks he
kept on the Key, and it's totally different. Look."
Giles picked up
both the letter and the notebook and made a quick inspection of them, seeing
that Dawn was indeed correct. He then reached across his desk and grabbed a
piece of paper, comparing it to the two handwriting samples he had in front of
him. "Dawn, this paperwork that Andrew supposedly filled out before
leaving, it doesn't match the notebook either. It matches the letter."
At that, Dawn
felt herself on the verge of panicking, but she knew she had to hold it
together. If her suspicions were correct and Andrew really was in trouble, then
she wouldn't be doing him any good by breaking down. "I'm going to go by
his flat, see if I can find anything there," Dawn said. "Giles, you
find out what you can about this mission he supposedly went on�if anyone
actually saw him or saw who turned in this paperwork."
Giles nodded.
"I'll do that now. And Dawn, be careful. If what's happened is some sort
of foul play, you could very well be putting yourself in danger by
investigating it."
"I
know," Dawn replied. "But I'm going to do it anyway."
"I know you
are. And I wouldn't try to stop you," Giles told her. "Just do be
careful."
"I
will," Dawn promised. "I'll come back here when I'm done, let you
know if I found anything."
"All right.
Good luck, Dawn."
"You,
too."

*** *** ***
After standing in
the hallway for several minutes and beating on the door loud enough to wake the
dead, Dawn came to the conclusion that no one was home and that she therefore
had every reason to break in.
She pulled a hairpin
out of her pocket then knelt down, working the thin piece of metal in the lock
until the door popped open. "Thanks, Spike," she said softly to
herself as she walked in, pocketing the hairpin as she did.
The flat was
sparsely decorated beyond what Dawn recognized as standard Council furnishings,
and she decided to go to the bedroom, see if she could find any traces of
Andrew still being there. The only clothes she found in the closet were
obviously Cynthia's, and Dawn cursed under her breath.
As she continued
to look around the room, she found no traces of Andrew still being there at
all, and she felt her heart sink with the fear that maybe he really had left.
Maybe the handwriting wasn't actually as different as she thought it was, and
it was just her mind playing tricks on her, trying to keep her from having to
deal with the idea that Andrew really had left her again.
Then something
caught her eye. There was a piece of paper laying on the desk by the window,
and when Dawn picked it up, she realized that the handwriting on it matched the
handwriting from the letter. And it wasn't Andrew's.
It was Cynthia's.
Dawn's fear began
to transfer into anger as she read what was written on the paper, and she left
the apartment with a firm determination to find Cynthia and make her hurt.

*** *** ***
Andrew supposed
he shouldn't have been all that surprised that his fianc�e turned out to be
insane. After all, she had agreed to marry him. That alone was probably grounds for being
committed.
He was surprised,
however, and just how psychotic she seemed to be. He'd never expected
her to respond to their break-up by attacking him in his office, hitting him
with tranquilizers, and then chaining him up in a cave, but she had. And from
that came the question of why they were in a cave and how they'd gotten there
in the first place. There weren't exactly a plethora of those in London proper,
especially not with the otherworldly feel that this one had.
Andrew had a bad
feeling about this.
"You're
awake, my love?"
Andrew looked up
at Cynthia, but didn't say anything. He only had one thing running though his
mind anyway, and he didn't think that asking Cynthia how exactly she'd gotten
so freaking insane was really going to help his situation much.
"You don't
have to worry," Cynthia said, walking over to Andrew and putting her hand
against his chest. "I'm not going to hurt you. I just have to make sure
you stay here, that's all. I'll let you out of those chains when it's over, and
I know you won't leave me."
Andrew swallowed.
Somehow, that didn't make him feel in the least bit comforted. "When
what's over?"
"The ritual,
of course," Cynthia replied with a wave of her hand, as if Andrew should
know exactly what she was talking about.
"What
ritual, Cynthia?"
"The one
that will make me strong." Cynthia moved her hand from Andrew's chest to
his face and stroked his cheek. "But don't worry, my darling. I'm going to
forgive you for trying to leave me for that other woman. When I'm powerful,
I'll let you be at my side. Of course, she'll have to die, but you'll get over
that soon enough. I'll see to it."
Andrew swallowed
hard. Apparently he'd still been underestimating the level of Cynthia's
insanity. "Cynthia, please, just tell me. What are you planning to
do?" Andrew hoped that whatever her plan was, she'd just go ahead and play
Bond villain and tell him outright. He wasn't sure what good it would do him
really when he was chained to the wall of a cave, but it had to be better than
going on no information at all.
She was
forthcoming, though the answer she gave him didn't make anything better. It
chilled him to the bone. "I'm going to join with the essence of the
Key."
"Cynthia,
listen to me," Andrew pleaded with her. "You can't do that."
"I have
to," Cynthia told him, her gaze coming up to meet his. Had her eyes always
had that wild look in them? Andrew couldn't remember now. "Do you know why
I took that mission, why I let myself be sent into Hell? For power. I was tired of always
being weak. I knew if I went there, if I looked hard enough, I could find
something, something to make me strong. Can't you of all people understand
that? I saw what you were like when we went in, Andrew, and I can see you now.
Isn't that what you wanted, too? Didn't you want to be strong?"
Andrew shook his
head. "Not like that, Cynthia. I didn't want to do anything like what
you're doing. I've tried in the past. I tried to gain power for myself, and all
it did was get people killed."
"I don't
care about that. I understand sacrifices have to be made, and I'm willing to
make them to get what I want."
Her words made
Andrew feel sick. He could hardly believe this was even Cynthia, that he'd been
this blind to what had really been going on in her mind. All this time, she'd
been plotting, searching for a way to gain power for herself�and she was going
to kill Dawn to do it.
"Where is
the Key now, Cynthia?" Andrew asked her, trying to gauge how far along she
was into this plan of hers. Maybe he could channel Harry Houdini and actually
get out of there in time to stop it�
"That's
where you're going to help me," Cynthia informed him. "I've been
looking for it, but I can't seem to get a handle on it. Something's blocking
me. I'm so close, though. I know I am. But you�I saw you keeping all those
notebooks, how much research you'd done. I'd read what I could when you were
asleep, but you're such a light sleeper, I never got as much of a look as I
wanted. You studied the Key so closely, that you must know how to find it. Tell
me what I need to do, and I'll share the power with you. I will. Just tell me how.
Surely, with all that research you've done, you must be interested in it as
well. Don't you want the Key, Andrew?"
Andrew noted the
hint of irony in Cynthia's question. He did want the Key�just not anywhere near the way she
meant. "I can't tell you how to find the Key, Cynthia. And even if I could,
you can't do what you're planning. I do know more about the Key than you do, and I can
tell you now that its power has never been able to be harnessed in the way
you're intending. If you could manage to merge with the essence of the Key, it
wouldn't stay with you, and when it left, you'd be either completely insane or
dead."
"No. You're
wrong," Cynthia told him, shaking her head. "The power will be mine,
and it will stay mine." She cupped Andrew's cheek again. "You
don't need to worry about me. I'll be fine, I know I will. So just tell me how to find the
Key."
Andrew jerked
away from her the best he could in the chains. "I'm not worried about you.
If you were the only person at risk here, I'd say fine. Go ahead and do what you
want, and if it leaves you dead, then it's what you asked for."
Cynthia reared
back. "That's really how you feel? After everything we've been through
together? And why? Because of her? Is she that much better than me?"
"Well, she's
not psychotic. That's a plus," Andrew replied.
Cynthia moved
further away from him. "Fine. If that's the way you're going to be, then
I'll simply have to find a way to persuade you. How about this? I find your
precious Dawn,
bring her here, and torture her until you tell me how to find the Key. Would
that make you talk?"
There
was that irony again� Cynthia had already expressed a desire to kill Dawn, so Andrew didn't
trust her not to hurt Dawn if he told her how to find the Key. And beyond that,
if he did
tell her where the Key was, then she'd be going after Dawn anyway. Damned if he
did and damned if he didn't. "Cynthia, don't. Just leave Dawn out of
this."
"Then tell
me how to find the Key!"
"I
can�t!" Andrew pulled uselessly at his chains. It had been a long time
since he'd felt this helpless, and he fought back the tears that threatened to
spring forth. They wouldn't do him any good. "Cynthia, please, just stop
all of this. You won't get what you want anyway, and people will get
hurt."
"I
will!" Cynthia screeched as she reared back and slapped Andrew hard. She
stepped back again, shaking her head. "I thought you'd understand. But you
don't. You're not the person I thought you were at all."
"I could say
the same thing about you," Andrew told her.
"It doesn't
matter anymore. I'll have what I want, and if you aren't willing to be by my
side, then I'll find someone who is, someone who does understand."
"Cynthia,
please, just don't do this," Andrew pleaded with her again, though he knew
it was hopeless. There was no way he could reason with someone in the state she
was in.
Cynthia shook her
head. "I'm going to do this. You're wrong when you say I can't. So I'm
giving you one more chance to tell me how to find the Key, and then I'm going
to hurt her. Is that what you want? Do you want me to hurt Dawn?"
"No. Please,
just leave her alone."
"Then tell
me how to find the Key."
"I
can't!" Andrew yelled at her, his frustration overwhelming him.
"Then I'll
get her, and I'll make you tell me," Cynthia said, her tone almost a
growl. She closed her eyes and chanted softly until a bright light appeared and
she disappeared in a flash.
Andrew stared at
the spot where she had just been, a new wave of hopelessness washing over him.
From the way Cynthia had left, he knew she must've taken him to another
dimension, though he had no idea which one�or how to get out. And that was
without factoring in that he was still chained to a wall.
He tugged at his
chains until he finally accepted the fact that he wasn't going to pull himself
loose, and slumped in despair.

*** *** ***
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- 32
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