Giles stared at Buffy, completely taken aback.

The young man Buffy now realized was Ethan Rayne sniggered. "Giles."

"Shut up," Giles snapped at him.

Ethan smirked.

He turned back to Buffy, his eyes narrowed in suspicion. "I'm called Ripper."

Buffy looked at him incredulously. "Yeah, right, I'm going to call you that. In a totally never kind of way."

He frowned indignantly.

"Now's so not the time for name games, Giles," Buffy continued. "We need to figure out what the hell is going on. I just walked into the library and one of those ghost-things from the spell you were doing like, whooshed at me," she made a whooshing movement with her hand. Giles looked even more confused. "And then boom. It's a blast from your past, and oh my God…" Buffy's eyes widened as Giles' blank expression suddenly made sense to her. "You don't even know who I am, do you?"

"Um…" He looked like he was trying to place her face.

"Oh, let me guess," Ethan jumped in genially. "Party last Friday?"

"Shut up, Ethan," Buffy said harshly.

For a split second Ethan looked hurt, and then his eyes flashed angrily. "Watch it, bint."

"What?"

"You don't talk to me like that."

"What's you're deal? You didn't get all pissy at Giles."

"Stop calling me that." Giles said irately.

"He's my mate. You're just some girl." Ethan looked at her in a way that made Buffy feel icky, and then mad.

She managed to stifle her anger for the moment. "Looks like I'm going to have to introduce myself all over again, then. I'm Buffy."

Ethan had barely started to laugh at her name when she socked him. Not hard enough to knock him out, but enough that he fell over.

"Hey!" Giles yelled, stepping forward.

Buffy grabbed his shirt and slammed him into the brick wall of the alley. "I'm the Vampire Slayer." She looked up at Giles. "I'm your Vampire Slayer."

Buffy thought she saw out of the corner of her eye, something moving in the shadows. She wouldn't have been curious to find out what kind of things hung out in alleys in this part of London even if she didn't already have more pressing issues on her mind.

She turned her attention back to Giles; he was looking at her like she was insane. She expected him to ask where she came from, or how she knew who he was, but he didn't.

"I am not a watcher," he said vehemently, and pushed Buffy away. He started off down the street without even waiting for Ethan to get up.

Buffy ran after him. "You aren't now. You dropped out of Oxford and are doing the whole sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll cliché – which, by the way, so lame – but you're going to go back, and you're going to be my watcher." She stepped in front of him, blocking his way. "I'm from the future."

Giles stared at her. Then he started laughing. Buffy was getting frustrated enough to cry.

Ethan caught up with them. "What's so funny?"

"She's from the future."

"Oh?" He turned to Buffy. "Did you bring your flying car with you?"

"Do all the girls dress like you in the future?" Giles asked, looking at Buffy objectively and taking in her baggy sweatshirt and overalls. "Can't say I'm looking forward to that."

Buffy punched him.

Ethan winced in sympathy. She glared at him, but he had already backed away from her, not wanting to get another demonstration of her strength. She turned back to Giles, who was rubbing his jaw.

"Are you going to at least admit that I'm the slayer?"

"Yeah. Fine," he replied tersely, glaring at her. "But no way in hell am I your watcher."

"Then how do you explain how I know who you are? How I know what's going to happen to you?" Buffy demanded, her volume rising.

Giles looked liked he might be considering it.

"Probably made all that up," Ethan remarked.

"You're going to come to a big pile of no good."

"Sounds like fun."

Buffy glared at Ethan, but otherwise ignored him. She turned back to Giles. "I know other stuff about you too. I know about Eyghon."

"What-gone?"

"Eyghon?" Buffy repeated, doubting she remembered the name correctly. Giles was still looking at her with a blank expression. "You summon this demon that possesses you to get high."

"No I don't."

"Sounds like we should look into it though," Ethan said.

Giles laughed. "Yeah, thanks for the tip."

Buffy felt desperate. She started pacing. "Yeah, well when you do you're going to get your friend… Randal, your going to get him killed."

That got Giles' attention. He looked at her seriously, worried and a little scared. "How can you know that?"

"Because you told me!" Buffy searched her mind for any other personal information Giles ever told her about himself. "You also told me that… that when you were ten your dad told you, you were going to be a watcher and gave you a speech about duty and responsibility and… and before that you wanted to be a fighter pilot or-or a grocer!"

Giles stared at her, agog.

Ethan burst out laughing.

Giles turned on him. "Shut up."

Ethan looked twice as delighted. "It's true?"

Giles rolled his eyes and cursed.

"Giles the grocer…" Ethan giggled.

Giles ignored him and glared at Buffy. "What do you want from me?"

"You have to help me find a way back."

"How am I supposed to do that?" he asked, incredulous.

"You're Giles! You're supposed to be all knowledgy!"

He looked at her with his eyebrows raised. "Am I?"

Buffy frowned. "I guess you got all of that after you went back to school." She sighed. "Don't you have any magic books at all?"

"Yeah, some, but I'm pretty sure nothing with spells like that."

Buffy sighed again in frustration and ran her hands through her hair. "Maybe one of them will at least, I dunno, point us in the right direction. It would be a start."

Giles shrugged. "Okay. C'mon," he said reluctantly and started down the sidewalk. Buffy followed him.

"Wait." Ethan had finally stopped laughing. He ran after his friend. "You're bringing her home?"

xxx

Angel scrambled quickly into the deepest shadows of the alley. What was with the sudden scene change? Last thing he remembered was getting hit in the shoulder with a crossbow bolt and Giles – Giles of all people – coming at him with a flaming baseball bat. Now it was suddenly day, in an alley he didn't really recognize, and there was someone walking by, a few feet away from him who seemed awfully familiar…

Angel was able to follow Buffy and Giles' conversation – or, argument, or whatever you want to call it – even if he wasn't able to follow them out of the shadows of the alley. Vampire hearing is good for that.

So, he had somehow been sent back in time. It was an inconvenience, of course, but he had a couple of demons in mind that he could talk to who could put things right again. You don't earn yourself a name like "the Scourge of Europe" without making a few friends in high places along the way. Or, friends in low places, if you want to be literal about it. As long as Buffy was here too, however, Angel wasn't in too much of a rush. He'd get back to the future eventually. But first he'd have a little fun.