Cairo, Egypt, 1924

Nick Balinger marched through the streets of Cairo, with something in mind. Something very important. He soon spotted Indiana Jones watching Marion Ravenwood go through the sales on the stall. He grinned and whistled. Indy and Marion twisted around and Indy grinned when he saw Nick making his way over.

Even though he was out of earshot, Nick knew when Marion spoke to Indy, she was asking who Nick was and Indy told her—straight up. Nick was the Sovereign of the 20th Century. That meant it was his responsibility to preserve all of reality for the duration of the 20th century by means of knowing everything without anyone telling him anything, advanced mental powers, wielding the Impenetrable Barrier and the inability to age, lie or die.

Marion looked over at him in interest. Indy, knowing it was pointless to hide it from him, dropped his arm over Marion's shoulders. Marion realised the same thing and reached up and caught Indy's hand, leaning into him. Nick came over to them.

"Hey, Indy." Nick greeted, "This must be Marion?"

"Like you don't already know." Indy chuckled.

"Point taken." Nick agreed, "I also know about a problem you have that you're not aware of."

"Which is?" Indy asked.

"I don't suppose you've heard of the Slayer?" Nick asked.

"No." Indy answered, "Not the Slayer. Probably not in the context you mean it."

"It's on a succession basis." Nick explained, "One dies another gets the power. Basically a lone warrior. There is more detail to it. The current Slayer lives in Holland and is called Mathilde."

Indy registered it right away.

"That's a girl." He said.

"And she's just sixteen." Nick agreed, "She'll die next year. About a year of being the Slayer. That's the way it goes. The Watcher's Council try to keep Slayers isolated so they don't last long enough to realise the corruption of that little organisation."

"Corrupt?" Marion asked.

"Putting it mildly." Nick said, "They say they're fighting against the forces of darkness but most of their battles are fought and won by the Slayer, who's always little more than a child."

"Why are you telling us this?" Indy asked.

"Because in 1996, a vampire calling himself the Master is killed by a Slayer called Buffy—don't ask about the name; I don't know what her parents were on when they called her that." Nick explained, "In 1999 two of his followers will try to stop that girl from ever being called by coming back in time and prematurely wiping off four prominent Slayers. The last three they tried all survived their attacks so they thought they'd get to a Slayer before she was called."

Indy and Marion both realised what he was saying at the same time.

Sunnydale, USA, 1999

"1924?" Carly Alice picked up the paper, "Cairo? That doesn't make sense. The Slayer in 1924 was Dutch. And she never went anywhere near Cairo."

Giles looked up at her and then moved over to a bookshelf. He pulled a book from the shelf and opened it. After a minute of searching, he looked up at Carly.

"That is correct." He said, "I am impressed, Carly. I didn't expect you to know a thing like that."

"That doesn't surprise me." Carly shrugged, "But think about it. They've obviously taken a change of strategy."

"What do you mean?" Giles asked.

"They were too accurate the last three times." Carly said, "Right time, right place. Why the mistake now? They surely have a list. It's not the Slayer in 1924 that we should be worried about. It's her successor."

Giles looked down at the book.

"1925 to 1929." He murmured in understanding, "The Lost Slayer."

"One of the few Slayers the Watcher's Council never found." Carly agreed, "But my great-grandparents were the ones who trained her. That's how I know who she is."

"And who is she?" Angel asked.

"Marion Ravenwood." Carly answered, "Daughter of Professor Abner Ravenwood, an archaeologist obsessed with the Ark of the Covenant and the wife of Doctor Indiana Jones, an archaeologist with an insane amount of luck."

"She got married?" Buffy demanded.

"Two years into her calling." Carly shrugged. She turned to Giles, "The reason the Watcher's Council never found her was because she and Jones moved around a lot of the time for the four years she was active. It took them a year to find Buffy—"

She gestured to the current Slayer.

"—and she was in one spot the whole time."

"How did your great-grandparents find her?" Giles asked.

"They didn't." Carly said, "She and Jones found them and she asked to be trained."

"Why didn't they go to the Watcher's Council?" Willow asked, "Did they just go to the first people who had answers for them?"

"No." Carly said, "When Jones was 14, he met the Sovereign of the 20th Century and two became friends. In 1924, for reasons unknown, the Sovereign went to Indiana Jones and Marion Ravenwood and told them about the calling of the Slayer. He told them that Marion was the next Slayer. A few days after that, Marion ran away from home and went to my rellies in New York. About a month later, Jones joined her."

"Why'd they do it like that?" Xander asked.

"To avoid suspicion." Sarah Rouge said, "Why else?"

"I'm afraid Carly maybe correct in her theory." Giles said, "They have changed tactics. With Carly's knowledge on the matter, we may be able to track down Marion Ravenwood and Dr. Jones. Carly, what did you mean when you said Dr. Jones had an insane amount of luck?"

"That's something you have to see to believe." Carly chuckled, "Shall we go?"

Giles set him book down and began the incantation.

Cairo, Egypt, 1924

No sooner had Nick finished his explanation that they were attacked, but not by the vampires. Nick theorised that because it was daytime in the desert, the assassins were using cronies to do their dirty work for them before Nick's successor and company showed up. Apparently that lot were coming to try to help the targeted Slayers kill the assassins, which was why all three previous attacks had failed.

Indy, thinking fast, grabbed Marion and pulled her out of the way, swinging her onto a cart and twisting around, pulling out his whip as he prepared to fight off the supernatural assailants. Nick checked the front of the cart before he snapped his fingers and a very sharp sword appeared in his hand.

"They're simple Harash Demons." Nick told him calmly, "Your whip should be enough to kill them. Just take off their heads. But don't try to shoot them. Most demons are resistant to bullets."

"Thanks for the warning." Indy said, drawing his whip back.

Kuh-RACK!

Kuh-RACK!

Kuh-RACK!

He found he had to yank fairly hard, but the whip still easily removed the heads of the demons. If Indy had any doubts of what he'd heard from Nick, they were well and truly squashed now.

"Indy!"

Indy twisted around and saw a demon had snuck past them and was jumping at Marion…

Kuh-RACK!

…and he lost his head.

Indy jumped up onto the cart with Marion and stood over her as he continued cracking his whip and beheading any demons stupid enough to come near his girl. As he snapped the whip around, he noticed Nick slicing the blade through the necks of the demons and getting quite a bit of blood on his clothes. The fight lasted no more than a few minutes before Indy noticed the demons were all gone. Nick stuck his sword in the ground and leaned on the handle.

"Not bad, Jones." He said, "Not bad at all. Especially for a first timer."

Indy rolled his eyes. Then he pulled Marion up and looked her over.

"You all right, honey?" he asked.

"Yeah." She nodded.

Anything more she would have said was interrupted by a loud noise and a light that dumped six people in the middle of the abandoned street. Out of the six, only two managed to land on their feet. The one with chocolate brown hair looked at the blonde girl and leaned over her.

"That must've been embarrassing." She remarked wryly, "A Slayer who can't land on her own two feet."

"Shaddup." The blonde muttered.

The girl chuckled and stood up. She took in the sight of the broken demon bodies before her and then looked at Nick and then at Indy and Marion. She planted her hands on her hips and pulled a sheepish expression.

"You'll forgive our tardiness, I hope." She said, "The spell isn't really that specific. We just followed them here."

Indy looked at Nick and saw the Sovereign was grinning from ear-to-ear.

"Not at all, kiddo." He said, "That's the thing with magic. If it doesn't have disastrous consequences, it has bloody awful timing."

"I assume this is your successor?" Indy asked.

"Yeah." Nick agreed, "This is Carly Alice."

"Carly." The older man that came with her spoke up, "You're the Sovereign of the 21st Century and you never said a word?"

"But, Giles." Carly smirked, "You didn't ask."