Time and Time Again

Chapter Four

By Azhuraea Fluer

"Oh, wait!" Buffy cried. Willow's chanting halted, and the faint mist that had begun to spring up vanished. Brushing off the odd looks she was receiving, she bounded over to her purse and pulled out a black ring box and stepped back into the spell-star. She handed the box to Angel as realization and remembrance donned on Giles's face.

"What is this?" Angel asked as he took it. Buffy only smiled innocently. Angel raised an eyebrow and opened the box. He blinked in surprise.

"The Gem of Amara…" Angel said, a hint of awe in his voice, surrounded by surprise. He glanced at his girlfriend at his side. "How did you get ahold of this?"

"I found it a few years ago in an underground crypt." Buffy shrugged. "I was rescuing this horde of gold and jewels from being robbed, and in return the ghost of the gold's owner let me have my pick. I recognized it from one of Gile's books. It will let you walk in sunlight and holy water won't have much affect. Direct contact with crosses will still sting, though." She said this last with an apologetic shrug.

"This may make the difference between whether or not we succeed, you know," Angel said, taking the ring out of the box and lifting to the light.

"This is all very nice and lovely but can we please make with the time jumping already?" Cordelia said in exasperation. "I have to be home, in, like, half an hour if I'm going to be ready for a modeling interview in the morning."

"Gee, it's so nice to know you'll be missing me," Buffy said sarcastically. Xander snickered and Cordelia smacked him in the arm. Buffy grinned, and nodded to Willow as Angel slipped on the ring and pulled Buffy to him. One arm around her waist, his other holding tightly to the pack slung over his shoulder. Buffy's was at her feet. A rope tied to it snaked upwards to be gripped tightly in her hand.

"Good luck!" Willow said, since she once she began chanting, they'd be gone by the time she could stop with the mojo. Buffy smiled at her best friend, and Willow began to incantation once again.

"Air and Water,

Wind and Fire,

Power's of Chronos' Daughter.

Grant us mortals the gift of time,

To heighten the honor that is thine!"

In sync with the last word, Willow flung a fistful of thyme over the couple with in the spell-star at the same time Xander, Cordelia, Giles, and Oz lit the candles in the points of the star. A thick purplish mist began to rise, swirling in an uncanny way around Angel and Buffy. Angel and Buffy breathed in one deep breath of the smoke, Buffy fighting against coughing, and spoke their part.

"Epoca sua miniera; portare io patria!" They chanted together loudly.

"Thine of mine, be of time, my will be done!" Willow shouted. A flash of light danced from her fingertips, split, and struck each candle. The flames went out, but the light traveled down the candle, through the spell star to the couple surrounded by the now opaque smoke.

A sensation like silent thunder swept outwards from the center of the star, reaching every corner of the room and filling every occupant to the bone. When the wind died down and the mist faded, Angel and Buffy were gone.

"Good luck," Someone said. Cordelia was about to make a snippety remark to that person to hide her own sudden sensation of worry for the couple, when she realized that she had been the one that had spoken.

Buffy was spiraling, tumbling, twirling…

At first it felt like when she used to sit on her father's office chair to spin and spin and spin and spin…only this was –thankfully- without the icky, wanna-throw-up dizzy feeling that always made her stop just as she was reaching a new speed. It was also what made her puke on her dad's keyboard and get her banished from his office…

Buffy, her hand in Angel's, tightened her grip on her lover's hand. Angel squeezed back, drawing her into his arms as the spinning increased, both of them shutting their eyes tight and clinging to each other and their packs for dear life.

If they'd had their eyes open or had been able to concentrate on their blurring surroundings at all, they would have noticed that the creams and browns of the whirling walls of the Sunnydale High School Library were switching to dark greens, blacks, and even darker browns. Angel did notice, however faintly, that Willow's chanting had faded and disappeared, replaced with the occasional bird's chirp.

They had no choice but to notice, however, the fact that the spinning had stopped, since the abrupt disappearance of the spinning sensation made both of them loose their balance. Buffy landed on top of the dark haired vampire, and for a moment Angel was glad he needed no breath; having the wind knocked out of you via elbow in the gut was not fun.

When they managed to untangle their limbs and decently recover from the after-affects of reaching the sound barrier –only in circles- Angel stood and lent a hand to Buffy, although both knew she didn't need it.

"Where are we?" Buffy asked softly, as if any sound bigger than a whisper would shatter the flawless tranquillity that surrounded them. The beauty of their surroundings took her breath away. She turned to look at Angel when he didn't reply to see the conflicting emotions he was failing in his efforts to hide; pain, remorse, memories, joy, sadness… But also a sort of faraway look. Buffy didn't need to be a rocket scientist to put all the clues together.

Angel had been here before, in this decently large round clearing with a stream running through the left side of the circular mini-meadow.

"Angel?" Buffy ventured. "I know your having fun making with the memories right now, but…could you please say something so I know you're still in there?"

Angel snapped out of his reverie with a visible jerk. He recovered quickly and smiled at her gently. He kissed her on the forehead tenderly. Buffy raised an eyebrow.

"Not that I didn't appreciate that but mind explaining what the Mr. Faraway look was for?"

"This place…" Angel looked around. "My family's summer estate is only a few hours ride away from this place. We used to have my birthday party here, up until I turned fourteen, then I deemed a woodland party too 'childish' and started spending my time with more… 'manly folk' as I deemed them at the time. Now days…or rather, in our time, you would call them drunken blockheads."

"Actually, I'd probably call them something a little less polite- okay, a lot less polite." Buffy grinned. "But I get the point." Angel grinned in sour amusement.

"Okay, so this is a good thing and a bad thing," Buffy said, changing the subject. "You know where we are, which is good. Bad thing; from the way you talk it sounds like we're quite a ways away from civilization."

"About an hour's ride by horseback to the nearest village," Angel confirmed. "Longer by foot." He grinned sheepishly. "I never walked, so I wouldn't know for sure." Buffy laughed and ran a hand through her hair. Too late she remembered the wig as she felt her hair flow freely from her scalp, released of his wig of a prison.

"Great," She muttered. "Now I gotta redo it without a mirror and without Cordelia."

"Redo what?" Angel inquired. Buffy blinked. Was he blind?

"Uh…hello…my wig…I just felt it fall out…" Actually, she hadn't felt it fall out, she'd just suddenly noticed it's absence.

"Buffy…you're hair…it's fine…" He frowned. "In fact…" He walked up to her and took a thick strand, feeling it, rubbing it between his fingers, letting it fall over his hand like silk. He kissed her on the cheek. "Sorry," He said. Buffy was about to ask him what he was sorry for, when he gave her hair a firm tug.

"Ouch!" Buffy pouted and leaped back, grabbing at her fake hair protectively. Only when she noticed Angel's raised eyebrow did she herself realize something was amiss…

Her hair…

It was still long…

No wig…

Didn't come out when pulled or disturbed…

Buffy frantically ran her hands through her hair, over her scalp, sifting, tugging, twisting…

But it was undeniable.

The wig was gone, and Buffy's hair and grown two feet.

"It's a good look for you," Angel told her, stepping up to her and brushing one of her bangs out of her eyes. Buffy scowled.

"I loved it when my hair was long," she confessed. "But it was such a pain to deal with!" she whined. "And now I gotta do it again…"

"You could-"

"No, I'm not cutting it," Buffy said. Angel's lips quirked in a suppressed amused smile. Buffy caught it and pointed to the treasonous lips.

"I'm not being a sentimental blonde!" She miffed. "If I remember my history right, hair was valuable, especially blonde, and especially in the condition mine is in. It'll be our…backup monitary supply."

"Of course," Angel consented with slight overstated agreement in his voice. Buffy glared and slapped him on the shoulder as she passed him.

"I'm serious!" She said, sitting down on a log and opening her backpack.

"Of course you are," Angel said, unable to resist the slight tease in his voice. Buffy looked up and stuck her tongue out at him before returning to the task of rumaging through her pack; time travel makes a girl, even the Slayer, hungry.

She never found that pack of granola bars, however, for a growling snarl from Angel made her look up, only to feel the prick of an arrow at her back.

"Who be ye an' what yer doin' in th' master's fo'est?" A voice growled.

To Be Continued….

OMG I'm soooooooo sorry this took so long to get out!!!!!!! I really am!!!!! I'd give an explanation except I really don't have on other than a slight writer's block. But it's gone now and here ya go! I hope to be turning out more chapters on a more regular basis. *looks sheepish* Forgive me, minna-chans (er, an affectionate Japanese term for 'everyone' basically.)?

Anyways, hoped you liked! Ja!

Azhuraea Fluer