CHAPTER THREE - THE ONLY WAY
"So, we're, uh… We're a TV show. And you don't think this is real."
Zoey was sitting on the couch in the house that Buffy lived in with Willow, Xander and Dawn. As it turned out, they were in Houston, Texas. Buffy was tracking down young slayers who were in need of training. According to Xander, that was all she'd been doing for the past years: Training slayers. He had told Zoey about how she was getting sick of it and how her wish for a normal life still hadn't come true but he had stopped talking about it when he had realized Zoey wasn't really listening.
"Yeah," she nodded. "This is a dream. It has to be. I mean, it does feel pretty real, but…" She shook her head and looked at Xander. "It's impossible. There is no such thing as traveling from one dimension to another. Just like there are no vampires and demons."
"Oh," Xander said, "So there are no demons in your world."
"No, not that I know of," answered Zoey and looked up to the ceiling. "It's broken," she said.
"Yeah, well," Xander shrugged, "I'm not gonna fix that. This house isn't ours. We came here to find a slayer, but she was dead before we even got here."
Zoey looked at him, appalled.
"This sort of thing happens." He shrugged. "The world did get saved… kind of. But we were wrong when we thought the fight was over." He looked deeply into Zoey's eyes and it made her blink. He has really pretty eyes, she noticed. "There will always be apocalypses, at least for the next few decades. There may be hundreds of slayers out there now, but… there are millions of demons too."
"You seem so serious," Zoey noticed.
"Well, this is serious, isn't it?"
"Things have always been serious for you guys." She furrowed her brow. "But you were still joking. You and Anya…"
Xander flinched when he heard her say Anya's name.
"I– I'm sorry…" Zoey looked down on the ground. She hadn't really been thinking when she had said her name. That's right, she thought, she's dead. She was a real person to him. She has lived in this world. And now she's gone.
"It's OK," Xander nodded. "It's been seven years. I should finally be able to deal with this."
"But you're not, are you? Not really." Zoey tried to make out his thoughts by looking at his face. And it worked. "What happened, it changed you. You're not joking all the time. You're sad and you're pushing the thought of her aside, but it's not helping, is it?"
"OK, you making me feel worse than I already do, that's what's not helping." Xander looked at Zoey again, but this time it almost frightened her.
She gulped. "I'm sorry."
"It's OK." Xander waved his hand dismissively. "I guess none of this is really… real to you, is it?"
She shook her head. For a while, neither of them said anything while Zoey had her first doubts. Was it really a dream? Did dreams feel this real? Was it possibly possible that…?
The sound of the opening door jolted her out of her thoughts. Buffy came in, followed by Giles. He had aged a bit, Zoey noticed, but he still looked as good as before.
"This is Zoey," Buffy said and pointed at her, "Zoey, this is… oh, that's right." She smiled and nodded. "You already know Giles."
"Did you find anything?" Xander asked. He saw the look on his face. "Anything… bad?"
Giles cleaned his glasses. God, he's never going to get rid of that habit, Zoey thought. "Yes," he said, "Yes, I'm afraid so."
xxxxx
The Scooby Gang sat down with Zoey and Giles went through a dark, dusty book.
"There is only one record of this kind of dimension-traveling," said Giles, "It happened in 1791 in England. But the woman, her name was Rosemary Keaton, she didn't get roped into a dimension were a television series was reality, obviously. It was a book." Giles turned the page. "The author's name was Jonathan Birmingham. He wasn't remotely famous, but he did publish a book that Mrs. Keaton read. Not many women could read in the 18th century but, apparently, she could, although there is no reason stated here. Huh, I wonder…"
"Giles…," Buffy began with an admonitory undertone.
"Who cares!" Dawn exclaimed, "Some women could read and she was one of them – big deal."
Giles just gave her a look and turned his attention back to the book. "It is said here that the plot of the book was rather violent. When she got out, she was partly debilitated, there were bruises all over her body and she had lost an eye."
"I don't think I'm ever going to read even remotely violent books ever again," Xander said and took a sip of coffee.
"Wouldn't wanna lose another eye, huh?" Buffy gave him a pitiful smile and he smiled back sarcastically. "So, how'd she get out?" she asked Giles.
"We, we will get to that." Giles looked at her reassuringly. "She was chosen to enter that dimension by an ascended demon called Heratos. He is one of the good ones though. He sends people to dimensions created by authors if that dimension is in danger and none of the existent residents can save it. The ones chosen to enter the dimensions are perhaps the only ones able to save it."
Everyone slowly turned around to look at Zoey.
"No," she said. "No, look, this isn't real. You guys don't actually exist, there is no way… no. Just… no." She shook her head. "What could I do anyway? I don't have powers! I'm not more intelligent than any of you!" Zoey started yelling. She was terrified. "You guys are so powerful together and I am nothing! I could never be the one to save this world! It's impossible." She stood up. She was about to walk out of the house when suddenly a thought crossed her mind. She turned around.
"Wait. How do I get out?"
Giles cleaned his glasses. Again. "You have to…," he looked at the book once more to ascertain, "You have to stop whatever it is that's endangering this world. It's the only way."
...to be continued! What does Zoey decide to do? Stay tuned!
