[Note:Vamped Buffy will be referred to as V-Buffy]



Chapter 23: The Calm before the Storm



Giles looked at the man across from him, "You mean...you know?"

"That Buffy's not in Kansas anymore? Yeah, I know. In fact, it's the reason why I was called here."

"Called here? Called here by whom?" Giles asked as his defensive attitude was quickly changing into one of curiosity.

At Giles question the man looked like he was about to answer, but then stopped, "Look, I can't say. It would only complicate matters."

"Complicate? I think matters are already too complicated." Giles said with a little anger.

The man let out a little smirk "No, I don't think you know just *HOW* complicated matters really are."
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Scene: Willy's bar


The place was now empty, except for Willy, Buffy and the man. The ladder now on the ground at Buffy's mercy.

"Will you listen now?" she said as she held the jagged piece of wood to his throat.

He made a movement to get up, but it seemed Buffy didn't like that as she poked him a little with the broken mop. He looked up at her in a matter that told her he would listen. She backed up a couple of feet allowing him to get to his feet.

"I still know how to use this." she said holding on to her only weapon.

"Talk fast." he said as if he was buying his time.

Buffy had been giving it her all just to get him to listen, only now she didn't know what to say or how to say it, "Uhh...well, you see I'm not from this earth." {GOD, he's going to charge me any minute now.}

Contrary to Buffy's belief the man just stood there.

"Ok...uh, you see the person you're looking for is from this earth. S-shes the one who's a vampire." Buffy said looking at the man hoping he would be either understanding or just plain crazy and believe her.

Buffy was saved from an unlikely source, "She's telling the truth." Willy said out loud.

Despite Willy's help Buffy felt like it was going to get violent again, but she was surprised when the man used words instead of action to be his response.

"And how would you know this?" the man asked looking at Willy.

"Because I've seen her, I mean the other her." he said nervously.

This caught Buffy offguard, "You have?" she asked looking at Willy, then when she received a look from the man she corrected herself, "I mean you have." trying to sound convincing.

"Said she was lookin for...uh, her destiny as she put it. Crazy gal." he said, then looked at Buffy, "No offense."

Buffy was too worried about the man in front of her to respond to Willy's comment, but to her and Willy's surprise the man just started walking towards the door.

Buffy hesitated for an moment, trying to figure out what just happened, then she looked at Willy, "When did you see her?"

"A couple of days ago. Came in here for a snack. I had to offer her a couple of my best employees just so she wouldn't take me. What?" he said after seeing the look he received from her.

Buffy started for the door to follow the man, but stopped and looked back at Willy, "Thank's for the save."

"You think I did that for you? I was just trying to save this establishment from any more violence." he said looking around at some of the mess that was left behind until he saw the look from Buffy to which he corrected himself, "No problem, anytime."

Buffy took one last look at Willy as she shook her head and headed for the door, more interested in why this man was looking for her evil twin. Actually, she didn't care why as long as he could lead her to Xander. When she walked out the door and looked both ways down the street the only thing she found was the wind whistling in her ears.
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Scene: Back at Giles' place


"What do you mean?" Giles asked.

Instead of answering Giles the man let out a sigh and started walking towards the door.

"You're not going anywhere until you answer my questions." Giles said, taking a step forward.

This stopped the man before he reached the door and turned around looking at Giles with a grin on his face, "Going all Ripper on me are you?"

"You listen here whoever you are. You're not..."Reed." the man said inturrepting Giles.

"What?" Giles asked.

"My name is Reed and I'm going to bring Buffy back no matter what you say or do." he said before making a move for the door.

Giles moved to stop him, but the man put his arm out and pushed Giles down with one hand, sending him to the ground with what seemed like a nudge. Giles regained his senses and got back to his feet as he looked at an empty room with the door wide open.
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Buffy was pissed. She came to Willy's looking for answers, only to have more questions. She felt cold, she felt...she felt frustrated...she felt..., "No!" she yelled out loud, not wanting to let the tears flow as she now hurried down the street towards Giles' place with a determined look on her face.

{I'm not going to cry. I've got too much on the line. Xander has too much on the line} Just at the thought of his name her thoughts seemed to stop as if something was forcing its way through, pushing all of her other thoughts out of the way. In fact, she was so entrenched in that thought that she bumped into someone coming from around the corner.

"Whoa, little lady. Whoa!" he said looking her up and down. "You sure do look...tastyyyyy." the last part was strung out because he now looked straight at her face.

"I-I'm sorry master...I d-didn't know you were...I thought you were...hey, your human." he said looking her over with a confused expression.

Buffy grabbed him by the throat and flung him against the wall.

"Oh, you're her." Thomas said as he struggled to talk under Buffy's grip.

{Note to self} Thomas thought, {Why do I need air to talk since I don't breath}.

Before he could even try to answer his own question Buffy asked a question of her own.

"You know where she is, where Xander is, don't you?"

When he didn't answer she lifted him off the ground by the throat, tighting the grip, and making him wish he really knew the answer to his own thought now.

"Where is Xander? Talk now and I'll let you live." Buffy said through gritted teeth.

"If I tell you she'll kill me." Thomas said finally getting a customed to his sudden state of levitation against the wall.

"Oh, and I'm going to give you a lifetime suscription to PlayVamp."

"Alright...alright, already! Just stop with the sex jokes."

Buffy let him down as he grabbed at his neck to make sure it was still on, "How do I know that you'll let me live when I tell you." he said.

"Well, you can't, but if you don't tell me in five seconds I'm going to tear your fangs out and make you eat them." Buffy said as she took a step towards him.

"Okay Okay! God, you really don't know how much you two are alike." Thomas said wincing at the image.
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Scene: The library


After Giles' meeting with the man who called himself Reed, Giles went to the library to get some of the books he had there since it appeared that he'd zapped his own collection to God only knows where. While he was there he thought it would be wise to contact the council and see if they might have any information on this Reed, but he wasn't having any luck.

"Damnit!" he said as he walked out of his office.

"No luck?" Willow asked as she sat at the table with Oz.

"I'm afraid not. Everytime I try to get through the only thing I get is the automated customer service."

"Oh." Willow said.

"I'm afraid with all of the deaths in the council lately, they're probably trying to regroup. Call the next slayer."

"What happened to the other one?" Oz asked.

"Well, it seems that she was also killed by..." he trailed off not wanting to believe Buffy could do something like that even if she was a vampire.

After Buffy's funeral Giles blamed himself for not being a better watcher, not protecting her, getting her ready for what she faced. He felt like if he would've trained her more, had more time. However, all of the pain he felt for months after Buffy's death was nothing compared to the pain of him finding out she was turned. Giles' attention was turned to the doors as Ms. Calender came in.

"Jenny?" he said looking at her, wondering why she was here.

"You didn't think I would just sit by and let you all deal with this alone, did you?" She asked.

Despite the night he was having, her comment brought a smile to his face. Though, that smile was lost as she looked around the library and asked the question, "Where's Buffy? I mean, the other world Buffy?"

"I haven't seen her since she left to go looking for Xander." Giles said as his voice lowered to one of worry.

"You think she'll find him?" Willow asked.

"Speaking of alternate reality girl." Oz said, looking towards the doors as Buffy came through them.

"Load up with weapons guys, I think I've found him." she said, then stopping and looking at Jenny it seemed to take her a moment to refocuse, "Ahh...we-e have to hurry."

Giles went to the weapons cabinet and took out some stakes and other vampire killing goodies as he passed them around to Willow and Oz.

"What about me?" Jenny said looking at Giles.

Giles handed her a crossbow as they started towards the door. As they left Giles saw Buffy toss what looked like a pair of fangs into the trash can by the door.
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Scene: Back at V-Buffy's bedroom of love


"You know, I didn't think you had it in you." V-Buffy said as she stood about ten feet from the bed that Xander was tied to.

Xander didn't respond. In fact, he couldn't respond because he had a black stocking stuffed in his mouth.

"Ahh, don't worry honey, you left me speechless too." she said, coming towards the bed.

She was now wearing just the shirt that Xander had on when she kidnapped him, and because Xander liked baggy shirts it went almost to her knees. She climbed on the bed slowly as she took something out from underneath the shirt.

Xander could barely focus enough to see what it was. He was still a little out of it from.....{OH God! What did we do?} he thought to himself unable to remember. Even though he was still a little out of it that didn't stop his eyes from almost coming out of their sockets as she pulled out the object.

"Oh my...where did that come from?" she said innocently as she held out a stake in front of her.

Don't worry, you won't be needing one of these anymore. In fact, it won't be safe for you to be around Mr. Pointy after I'm through with you.

After saying this she looked up at Xander with a questioning look and then went and took the stocking out of his mouth, "You trying to say something honey?"

"Buffy, listen to me. I love you. Please don't do this."

V-Buffy looked into his eyes, "That's *WHY* I am doing this, so we can be together forever."

Xander saw his only opportunity, "Give me one last request?" he asked.

"Anything."

"Let me kiss you while I'm still human." Xander said.

V-Buffy wasn't expecting this. She suspected something was up, but she couldn't say no to him as she got on top of him slowly, looking at him with a little hesitation, before leaning down to kiss him.

Just when she leaned down towards him Xander brought his head up towards hers, but not to kiss her as he headbutted her.

It was safe to say that this act didn't go over too well with V-Buffy as she looked enraged, with her face changing, "Fine! If that's the way you want it then so be it!" she said before burying her fangs into Xander's neck.
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