Chapter 4
Once upon a time, Adrienne de Gaston had been called the most beautiful woman on the Continent. Of course, she'd mostly been called that by men who wanted to be her lovers, but it certainly wasn't far from the truth. Adrienne had married young and well, becoming a comtesse by the time she was nineteen. Every door of French society was opened wide to her.
And she was thoroughly bored. Bored of the aristocracy, bored of her husband (not surprising, as he was two full decades older than she), bored even of the divertissements Paris had to offer. So she looked for anything that would relieve her boredom. She became quite the scandal by her twenty-fifth birthday. Her taste for debauchery, she found, ran deep and strong, and she was thoroughly indifferent to what others said about her. It wasn't hard to find the places Good People refused to talk about even in whispers, and when she found those places, Adrienne indulged in activities Good People didn't even know were possible.
Her husband didn't care. She'd borne him two sons before she turned twenty-two, and by his definition, she'd done her duty. He preferred a good brandy to her company any day.
It was during one of Adrienne's excursions to find relief from her ennui that she met the two most beautiful people she'd ever laid eyes on. The woman was small, blond, and perfect, with a gleam of cruelty in her eyes that intrigued and aroused Adrienne. The man was magnificent, tall, built like a Greek god, and carried about him the presence of a predator.
I'm Darla, said the woman, and this is my Angelus. What do you want of us, Adrienne?
Adrienne was seduced. Two nights later, the former comtesse rose from her grave, killed her husband and sons, and left Paris with her sires. Good thing, too, as the conflict that would come to be known as the French Revolution broke out shortly thereafter.
The three of them traveled together for close to a decade. Then, one evening in Italy, Adrienne awoke to breakfast in bed.
Happy birthday, my pet, cooed Darla, stroking her hair. Angelus and I brought you a present. We picked him out just for you.
The "present" was a sixteen-year-old boy, strong and bronzed from working in the vineyards of Tuscany. He smelled of rich earth, ripe fruit, and sunshine, and as he looked into Adrienne's perfect face with his dark, gold-flecked eyes, she knew. She knew she'd found the one. Like Angelus was Darla's, Paulo would be Adrienne's.
They parted company with Angelus and Darla shortly after Paulo rose. Adrienne wanted to show Paulo the world. As she did, it opened up to her, too. Seeing everything again through Paulo's young eyes, experiencing all of his first times, reawakened something in Adrienne she'd thought long dead. And she loved him for it.
From time to time, they crossed paths with Angelus and Darla, or James and Elizabeth, and would travel as a group for a few months or so. They'd have some good times, then part again, going their own way.
In the 1880s, though, something changed. Each time Adrienne and Paulo would rejoin Angelus and Darla, two other vampires would be with them. Drusilla (Lunatic!) and Spike (Maniac!) now traveled constantly with their elders, playing the incorrigible children to Angelus and Darla's exasperated-but-affectionate parents.
And Adrienne suddenly realized she felt jealousy toward these two young upstarts. It was a surprise to her to find that she missed being Angelus and Darla's favorite childe. She found herself, much to her own disgust, competing for Darla's attention, often joining Angelus and Darla in bed—with or without Paulo.
They're exhausting, murmured Darla to Adrienne in bed one day as Angelus slept beside them. At least Spike keeps Dru occupied now, though. The girl was beginning to wear on my nerves. Besides, Darla added with a laugh, they keep us young. Don't ever tell Spike I said that, though: he's already convinced that without him, the whole lot of us would be stiff with rigor mortis.
You'll never be old, Darla, whispered Adrienne, stroking her sire's beautiful face. Never.
When Angelus awoke, he joined them.
Adrienne's disgust with her own jealousy, as well as Paulo's moping over her neglect of him, prompted her to take her boy and go someplace she knew she wouldn't see Darla or her brood: the Master's seat of power. Adrienne rather liked her Master's idea of destroying the mortal world anyway. She'd never quite forgiven it for boring her so thoroughly. Over the years, Adrienne and Paulo became the Master's trusted lieutenants, and Adrienne herself was second only to Luke in the ranks of the Order of Aurelius.
Then, just as the new century turned, the unthinkable happened: Darla strode into the Master's throne room, eyes dark with fury and betrayal, and demanded a private audience. When Adrienne and the others were called back in, it was announced that Darla was back in the fold. With that simple announcement, Adrienne's position was usurped.
That in itself was bad enough. Worse, though, was the fact that Darla apparently wanted no reminders of her life outside the Order. All attempts by Adrienne to ask why Darla was no longer with Angelus, Drusilla, and Spike were rebuffed, and Darla avoided the other vampiress as much as possible. It was unbearable.
The earthquake that trapped the Master was Adrienne's ticket out. She took Paulo and, promising she would search the world for the key to the Master's freedom, fled to Europe, Asia, anywhere she could possibly go to be away from her distant sire. Periodically she returned, bringing with her the texts and talismans the Master demanded of her through emissaries, but she always left again as soon as possible, getting away from Darla's cold gaze.
Many years later, the deaths of Darla and the Master nearly brought Adrienne back. Freighter journeys take months, though, and by the time Adrienne set foot in the New World again, word had come to her that Spike and Drusilla had stepped in to fill the leadership void at the Hellmouth. That had been enough to drive Adrienne away yet again.
But not before she met with the remaining loyalists of the Order. One had unearthed an obscure prophecy indicating that the Master would return in power.
That information prompted Adrienne to go on her own quest. Luke and Darla were dead (and that bastard Angelus would pay for his betrayal, Adrienne vowed): that left Adrienne as the ranking member of the Order. If the Master returned, she reasoned, Adrienne would take her place at his right hand, and no one would ever—ever—usurp her position again.
So she and Paulo traveled, scouring the world for indications of how they might bring the Master back. Finally, one day in late 1998, a shaman called Adrienne to him. He said there had been a tectonic shifting of time, and a new Possibility had been unleashed in another dimension. If Adrienne could tap into that dimension, she would find her Master.
Over three arduous years later, Adrienne, along with the Remnant, finally found what they were looking for. She herself, Paulo proudly by her side, went to beg the Master's indulgence and grant them the boon of his presence. He agreed.
Adrienne exulted. Nothing would stand in her way, she believed. Nothing could ever tear her and her darling away from their rightful places.
Except death.
***
Adrienne wailed, flinging herself at the Master's feet. The other vampires who generally stayed close to the throne had either run or were now cowering in the corners. Two vampires had already met a bad end due to Adrienne's raging grief; none wished to be the third. The Master, by contrast, appeared unperturbed.
"My boy!" Adrienne sobbed. "My sweet, sweet Paulo!"
"You are troubled, my child," observed the Master sagely.
Any other vampire would've gotten staked for that sort of bloody obvious statement. As it was, Adrienne simply curled up, leaning her cheek against her Master's knee.
"I am," she whimpered. "My beautiful boy is dead by a Slayer's hand. Two hundred years turned to dust and ashes . . ."
The Master stroked her hair, looking thoughtful. "So, they have followed me into this world, have they? Two Slayers and a group of White Hats. This poses difficulties."
Adrienne sat up abruptly. "Master, I beg of you a boon."
"Name it, my child."
"Give me the red-haired Slayer." Adrienne's eyes were dark with near-insane fury. "Buffy, the Slayer here, is old, as Slayers go. She is powerful. Her blood will belong to no one but you. But let me drink the blood of the Slayer who killed my darling."
The Master thought about it for a long time, and silence reigned in the throne room. Finally, he said, "She is yours. I give you the Slayer Amanda."
"Good," Adrienne growled. "Good."
***
Giles was staring at himself. "Dear Lord."
His other self stared back. "Dear Lord."
Buffy cleared her throat, getting the attention of both of them. "Giles, meet . . . Giles. Alternate-dimension Giles, meet my Giles. Oh, boy."
The Gileses simultaneously removed their glasses and squinted at each other. Tara, in spite of herself, giggled. The Giles who had come with Amanda was thinner, with a scarred face and more gray hair. Other than that, though, they were exact duplicates.
"This is-this is very strange," said the Giles of Buffy's world.
"I have to agree," said the other Giles.
"Um, okay. Other introductions." Buffy turned to Amanda. "Giles—my Giles, this is Amanda. She's the Slayer from their world. Amanda, meet my Giles."
"A pleasure," said Buffy's Giles absently, still looking at his double.
Amanda stood half a head taller than Buffy, with pale blue-green eyes, a milky complexion dotted with freckles, and a short mop of light red ringlets crowning her head. The otherworldly Slayer shook her head, frowning. "This is going to get confusing real fast."
"It's no problem," interjected Anya. She smiled and thumped the arm of the alternate Giles. "We'll just call this one Rupert. Hi, Rupert. We've actually met before."
"Have we, now?" asked Rupert, too thrown to even protest Anya's unilateral decree.
"Yes. I'm Anya. Anyanka, actually. You stripped me of my powers after I shifted Cordelia into your world."
Buffy looked puzzled. "Waitasec—I thought you created their world."
"Oh, no, I'm nowhere near that powerful," said Anya. "The Possibility always existed. It was just latent until I tapped into it at Cordelia's request."
Buffy shook her head. "Anyway, um, Rupert, these are my friends." She indicated the table where Willow, Xander, and Dawn were waiting.
"Good Lord!" Rupert pulled back instinctively.
"They're not vampires," Giles hastened to say. "Willow and Xander were never turned in this world."
Rupert stilled, pure amazement on his face. Slowly, he descended into the shop, coming to a stop before Willow and Xander. His eyes were on Willow. Her eyes were downcast, but as the silent moments ticked by, they were drawn upward to his. He'd removed his glasses, and the expression on his face . . .
"Willow," he breathed. "You-you've grown."
The tenderness in his voice startled Buffy. She'd been expecting his reaction to Willow to be roughly the same as Tara's, but now the Slayer understood.
He knew her before he even knew me in this world, she realized. It must've been the same in his world. How hard must it have been on him when she got vamped?
Willow swallowed hard. "I-I have?"
"Yes." Rupert's voice was very quiet. "You were only sixteen when you were . . ." He trailed off and abruptly replaced his glasses. "But of course you don't want to hear about that. It's good to see you a-alive, Willow."
Willow nodded, understanding. "It's good to be alive," she said, her voice tight.
Buffy introduced Xander and Dawn, and all of them found places around a table.
"I've got some news," Buffy announced. "Tara and I ran into Adrienne, the vampire I called you about. She bragged that the Master's already in town. Oh, and Amanda here dusted her boy-toy, so she may be on the business end of a nasty vamp-grudge."
"Come on!" Amanda scoffed. "Like vamps care about that sort of thing."
"They, believe me, do," Buffy said calmly. "Adrienne and Paulo had been together for around two hundred years. Vampires take these things very seriously, and they do not react well to relationships ending. Adrienne wants you dead, and she will come after you. Count on it."
"Buffy's quite correct, Amanda," said Rupert. "Vampires form tight bonds among themselves. You'll want to be on your guard, particularly as Adrienne gave Faith quite a challenge. A vampire that old is a completely different proposition than those you normally fight. Are you certain of her age, Buffy?"
"I got it from someone I trust. Personal experience says she's tough, too." Buffy rubbed her still-aching throat.
Rupert was the one who got down to brass tacks, asking what had been happening in this world. He and Giles conferred (much to the bemusement of the gathered Scoobies and guests), and after comparing notes on what had gone differently in this world than theirs, exchanging theories, and going off on not a few tangents, it was decided that they should all go take a look at the portal.
Buffy had been expecting them to have to find it the way they had before: by Willow and Tara sensing it. However, that wasn't necessary this time. A sort of vague distortion hung in the air beside the science building at about Buffy's eye level. They examined it from all angles. As near as they could tell, it was roughly five feet long, two feet wide, and paper-thin. When Buffy stooped to look at it from underneath, she thought she could just see a hint of movement inside it.
"Weird," summed up Dawn.
"It feels a lot stronger now," said Tara.
"And it wasn't visible before," murmured Giles. "Was it the same on your end?"
"We couldn't see it," said Rupert. "All we had to mark its location was the circle that had been cast to open it."
"Okay, question from the non-magical," said Xander. "If this thing was made so that vamps from here could go there and bring the Master back, why's the circle on that end?" Giles, Rupert, Willow, and Tara all looked at the young carpenter. "Okay, was that a dumb question?"
"No, actually, it's an excellent one," said Rupert. "Why, indeed?"
"I-I guess that means that either we're wrong about who initiated the portal--" said Willow.
"—or it has to do with the type of portal it is," finished Tara.
"Both possibilities should be investigated," said Giles. "I think that perhaps--"
The portal flexed, flashed, and gave a girly-scream. Everyone jumped back just as a body came hurtling out of it and flopped to the ground.
"Ow," groaned Jonathan Levinson.
"What the hell?" snapped Buffy reflexively.
Jonathan stood up. And screamed again as he came face-to-face with Willow. He jumped back, bumping into Xander, and screamed yet again as he realized who it was. Then he caught sight of the Gileses, standing side-by-side.
Without further ado, he fainted.
***
"This is very weird," said Jonathan, his eyes shifting from one person to another around the Magic Box.
"I'd like to know just what you thought you were doing," said Rupert, sounding not at all happy.
"I didn't know what was gonna happen!" protested Jonathan. "It's just that that's the last place anybody saw you, Amanda, and Tara, so I thought I'd try a revealing spell to see if I could figure out where you'd all gone, and all of a sudden, I'm getting beamed up!"
"My God," muttered Xander to Willow. "Nerd in one world, geek in the other."
Willow didn't respond. Xander glanced at her and realized she was totally white-faced, looking like she was going to be sick.
That was when he remembered that the last time she'd seen Jonathan, she'd been trying to kill him.
"You gonna be okay?" Xander asked her softly.
Willow looked at him and slowly nodded. Xander found himself fervently praying that no other members of the Geek Trio would show up.
"You shouldn't have tried anything at all," said Tara. "You should have at least waited for Pauline or Celeste. That much magical energy—Jonathan, magic isn't a toy. It's dangerous."
"The padawan has heard this lesson before," grumbled Jonathan, rolling his eyes.
"And you'll hear it again until it sinks in," snapped Rupert. He took a deep breath, forcibly controlling his anger. "What's going on in our world?"
"Everyone's wondering where you went. Oz and Larry are keeping a lid on it—we don't want the vamps knowing the Slayer is gone—but people are scared. Celeste was talking about some kind of location spell to find you. I don't know what it was, exactly."
Rupert nodded, looking thoughtful. "It's good that they're keeping our absence a secret. As for a location spell, it will be difficult for Celeste to find us across dimensions. I just hope she doesn't try casting it near the portal."
"At least they won't have to worry about the Master, if what that vamp said is true," Amanda pointed out. She sat up. "Hey! Two Slayers, one Master—we could take him out right here, couldn't we, Buffy?"
"Did it once," shrugged Buffy. "But he's tough, and there are always the minions and henchmen. Don't wanna get too overconfident. And then there's the matter of figuring out where he's holed up."
"Perhaps we could determine that by his habits in his home dimension," suggested Giles.
They broke down the tasks. Rupert, Anya, Buffy, Xander, and Amanda pulled out maps of the town's infrastructure to identify places where the Master would be likely to hold court. Meanwhile, Giles, Willow, Tara, Dawn, and Jonathan continued to research the portal. After a little while, the second group was distracted by a fracas in the first.
"All I do is grant wishes," said Anya defensively, glaring at Rupert. "It's not like I'm the one who dreams up the curses. I just carry 'em out."
"And people get hurt," shot back Rupert. "You granted this Cordelia's wish without even letting her know what the consequences could be. Do you have any idea how many people have died in my dimension? Do you even care?" He made a dismissive noise. "Of course not; you're a demon."
"Hey!" protested Anya. "That's not fair. Besides, it's not like I created your dimension. The Possibility was always there. Blame the Watcher's Council for thinking they had better places to put Buffy. I'm not to blame for what other people wish."
"Yet you continue to grant those wishes. By your own admission, you became a demon again--"
"Because I got dumped at the altar! If you were standing there in your fluffy white dress when your fiancé told you he didn't want to get married after all, you'd do the same thing!"
"So you just picked up again, torturing and killing men, after years as a human. Apparently, you learned nothing in that time."
"I learned plenty, you big, stuffy, British--"
"Excuse me," interjected Giles mildly. "Aren't there better ways we could be spending our time? Thank you."
Rupert and Anya glared at each other once more.
"I'm going to be in Giles' group now," Anya announced, and stalked over to the other table.
"Giles," Willow said suddenly, "I think I found something on that portal. Um, Tara? Did I hear you say the circle had been burned into the ground?"
Tara forced herself to look directly at Willow. "Yes."
"Okay, the Darshivan Grimoire says that there is a kind of portal that can be cast between parallel worlds. It's cast in one, and when it opens in the other, it burns a circle to mark its entrance and exit. It goes both ways, and, here's another thing, gets more unstable with each use."
"That sounds quite likely," said Giles. "Ours is a parallel world—that is, our time runs parallel to theirs—and the continued use of the portal certainly has destabilized it. Does the Grimoire say how it can be closed?"
Willow shook her head. "No, but it does reference the warlock Thomas mac Eamon. Don't you have some of his writings?"
Giles stood. "His Book of Shadows is on the upper level. I'll, ah, fetch it."
There was a flurry of chatter at the other table. Then Buffy stuck her head up.
"Giles? We think we've found some likely suspects. Amanda and I are going to do some recon," said the Slayer.
Both Giles and Rupert chimed in with nearly identical advice about avoiding confrontation. They stopped speaking abruptly, looked at each other, and flushed. Buffy grinned.
"Don't worry. The vamps are strictly 'look, don't touch' tonight. Ready to go, Amanda?" With that, the Slayers headed out the door.
A little while later, Willow was trying to find a book in the stacks when Tara shyly approached.
"Hey," said Willow softly, as if she was trying not to frighten a small animal away.
"Hi." Tara swallowed, obviously nervous. "I just wanted to say—I wanted to tell you I'm sorry. The way I reacted to you, I know it hurt you. I'm sorry about that."
"Oh, no," said Willow. "I completely understand. You met evil-vampy-me. I-I think that'd be enough to scare off anybody."
Tara smiled a little hesitantly. "I just—I know Tara was your girlfriend in this world, and it has to hurt, seeing her—seeing me."
Willow smiled sadly. "It does, but in a good way, you know? Knowing that Tara's still alive someplace—that's good."
"I wonder . . ." Tara's eyes flicked downward. "I had a girlfriend named Marnie who died. I wonder if she's alive in your world somewhere?"
"Maybe. I don't know anybody with that name, but maybe."
"She was kind of a gypsy, anyway." Tara smiled. "Never stayed in one place for long." There was a slight, awkward pause. "It was the way Giles—my Giles—reacted to you that got me to thinking that you're not the same person she was. The other Willow, I mean. It must've been hard on him when . . . you know."
"He was my favorite librarian," said Willow. "I kinda had a crush on him, way back before I figured out I really like girls better."
Tara giggled a little, then looked puzzled. "How did you know about vampire you anyway?"
"Well, when Anya first got turned human, she tried to get her pendant back. It's her power source," explained Willow. "She tricked me into helping her with the spell, but things went wrong, and evil me got brought over instead. It was really weird, especially when she decided she wanted to turn me and be the vamp-twins."
"That would be weird," agreed Tara, laughing. "So how'd you get rid of her?"
"We captured her, cooked up a spell, and sent her back to her own dimension. Oh, and she really freaked out Xander by--"
"You sent her back?" Tara's brow furrowed. "Why?"
"It was just too weird to kill her," said Willow. "You know, she had my face and all, and--"
"So you just let her go?" Tara demanded. "She was a monster!"
Willow flinched back from Tara's growing anger. "I-I didn't know. I'm sorry. We just--"
"You sent her back to my world, where she could keep butchering my friends! The people I love!" Tara yanked the hair away from her neck, revealing the scar there. "This is what her friend Xander did while she killed Marnie!"
"Oh, God," Willow gasped. "I'm so sorry, Tara. I didn't know!"
"You knew she was a vampire. In my world, we'd have just killed her, no matter whose face she had. Do you have any idea how many vampires with friends' faces I've had to kill? You make me sick!" Tara turned, facing the others, who had stopped what they were doing in favor of staring. "You all make me sick! And if I find out you sent her back before she killed Marnie, I swear I'll kill you all!"
Tara ran up the stairs and out the door as Willow collapsed into sobs.