11.       An hour later, Jimmy had been told the whole story.  Or at least all the important parts, that Buffy and Faith were Slayers, Doomsday and Superman were real, just about 10,000 years in the past, The Heart of Doomsday, DoomVamp, and the event of the past few hours with the Orb of Kal'El.  Surprisingly, he took it rather well, but as soon as the Super Slayerettes stopped talking, he turned to Anya and asked him what she meant by helping him regain his memories.

            At that, Anya had turned to Buffy, with an almost pleading look in her eye.  Buffy hadn't even stared at the immortal demon for a second before she just hung her head and sighed deeply.  "Fine, fine, I'll see what I can do," Buffy said as she stood up and moved her chair to in front of Jimmy.

            "What are you gonna do?" Jimmy asked nervously.

            "Remember we each got powers from the Orb?" Buffy asked him.  He nodded.

            "Well, I got all the psychic powers of this guy, and then some.  I'm going to see if your memories are trapped inside your mind, or if they've actually been erased.  If it's the first, then I'm going to see what I can do to fix your mind, but…if it's the last…"  Buffy trailed off, but Jimmy got the idea.

            "Then there's nothing in the whole world that could bring my memories back, is there?" he asked softly.  Buffy nodded, looking uncomfortable at the prospect.  Memories of Willow's accidental amnesia spell coming to mind for everyone there, and reminding the Slayer the uncontrolled fear that event had left them all with.  She wouldn't wish that on anyone.  Apparently though, Jimmy's angry ex-girlfriend would.

            "All right," Buffy raised her hands, open palmed, to either side of Jimmy's head.  "You shouldn't feel anything, but you will feel me inside your mind, and hear me if I want you to.  I'm not sure how long this will take though, first time and everything."

            "Should I be nervous?" Jimmy asked.

            "No.  I'm not good enough to do any lasting damage anyway.  At least not yet.  Don't worry, and…no, you shouldn't be nervous, because it might distract me and that would be a bad thing." Buffy answered with a run-on.

            "Oh…o-kay…" Jimmy nervously stuttered and struggled to remain calm.

            With those last assurances, Buffy focused her new abilities and with almost the simplest of ease, found herself inside Jimmy's mind.  She almost blinked when she realized that she had already done it with almost no effort whatsoever.  Shaking off her surprise, she focused on her task and began to look around her semi-astral self, inside Olsen's brain.

            When she realized what she was seeing, she tried shaking her astral head to clear her eyesight, though her normal senses had absolutely nothing to do with what she was seeing.  Focusing more of her power, she imagined all the random acts of data, thought, memory and emotion around her into something that she could fully interact with and understand at the same time.

            Before she knew it, she was in some kind of hallway, only it was filled with filing cabinets.  Buffy went closer to examine them, and was shocked when she saw that each and every cabinet in the hallway had a complex lock over each and every drawer.

            "What the hell?" Buffy cursed as she went around and made sure that each cabinet really was as locked up as the first was.  They were.

            Except for three near the end of the hallway.  One was a bright pinkish red, that Buffy somehow immediately knew represented Jimmy's emotions, and all but the last bottom drawer was unlocked.  The next was a stark white cabinet, and all of these were unlocked, while at the same time, despite never actually seeing it do so, Buffy felt as though it were vibrating with energy.  Buffy stepped closer and read the listing on the little metal label at the top of the cabinet.  "Body Input/Output".

            Buffy blinked.  This was how his mind interpreted and stored all the information about maintaining his body.  Best to leave it alone.

            The last was a soul-sucking black cabinet that seemed to be shoved as far back into a corner as it could be.  When she tried to step closer, she felt an odd resistance, but at the same time noticed locks on it as well.  Buffy wasn't even going to waste time looking, even though the lock on the Black cabinet was different from all the other cabinets in the room.

            Just past the last three cabinets though, there was a door, like a door to an office or something.  Shrugging, Buffy went to the door, and opened it.  She did not like what she saw.

            While Buffy was rummaging around in Jimmy's mind, which became rather obvious as a cloud-like gold-hued glow was erected between Buffy's hands and Jimmy's head, the others thought it prudent to discuss the current situation to the best of their current knowledge.  In short, they had to talk about something because if they didn't start doing something they were gonna go crazy with fear and frustration.

            "So…what do you think your power, or powers, are Faith?" Willow timidly asked, trying to open up the communications line with her best friend's apparent new girlfriend.

            Faith looked up sharply and almost snapped at the redhead morpher.  She thought it over for a few seconds before just shrugging and sitting down with a loud 'plump'.  "Beats the heck outta me.  I mean, the whole bracelet deflecting bullets and even the chain doin' everything I think it to do says "Wonder Woman", ya know?  But then there's the black costume, and then there was that whole creepy oil-transformation thingie…"

            They all nodded at that.  When Faith had let go of Jimmy and decided he was no longer a potential threat, her new "costume" as she kept thinking of it, suddenly became fluid and it all turned into this black oily substance that was sooner than thought, refitted to her original clothing.  Dawn had informed them that the same thing had happened, only in reverse, when the costume first appeared when Faith had stepped in front of everyone to stop the would-be thief.

            "I just don't know…" Faith finished speaking, looking disturbed over several things.  The first was what Buffy herself had pointed out when she'd almost permanently injured Jimmy.  She used black glowing chains, like Spawn, who was supposed to be some kind of general for the forces of darkness in the final battle, but just wasn't ready to accept hell and tried to help people as much as possible.  Not a golden lasso, like her childhood hero, Wonder Woman.  Heck, even her transformation into her "superhero identity" was more like Spawn's than Wonder Woman's.  Despite being underage at the time, she had seen the Director's cut of the movie.

            "Well…you know, that costume change thing, it looked kinda familiar," Xander spoke up.

            Then suddenly he stood up.  "It was almost exactly like Venom!"

            At everyone's confused stares, the newborn Superman elaborated.  "Sorry.  Saturday morning cartoons, that old Spider-man cartoon, the newer one, not that old one with the "spider friends" and stuff!  When they did the Venom saga, where Spider-man got this new black costume, that was really an alien symbiote, whenever Spider-man, or later on the guy that hated Spider-man became Venom, that same kinda oil-look happened whenever they changed clothes.  Spider-man even did it to put himself in a different outfit than normal.  It was kinda cool, except for the whole 'costume is an evil alien that wants to destroy Spider-man and his sanity' part, but still very cool." Xander added sheepishly when he saw Faith's face turn downcast.

            "But it's not!" Willow insisted.  At the looks she received, she continued, "I mean, it's not an alien symbiote.  Well, there is the whole alien thing, but it's not that kinda alien.  We all got alien powers, it's just we need to figure out how to use them.  At least with Xander we have some basis to figure them out with, but with the rest of us…we're going to need some help at figuring things out.  Unfortunately, Buffy is the only one with any clue as to what's going on.  Not even the all-knowing cryptic Balance demons from the all-seeing Powers That Be have any clue what to do now."

            "Hey now!" Whistler stepped forward, slightly miffed at being called useless.  "I take resentment at that!  Nobody would know what exactly to do next when something like this happens.  Only one of you was supposed to get the powers of Kal'El, not all six of you, and they certainly weren't supposed to be split up like they were.  All I know for sure is that with the powers split up, they're a lot weaker too.  We need to figure out how you all are gonna stand up to DoomVamp, not to mention get rid of the sorry bastard."

            "But how?" Faith asked, feeling helpless.  A feeling, she decided, that she did not like.

            At that, Whistler could only look as helpless as they were all feeling and he just shrugged and muttered, "I…don't know."  Then he looked up and around the room, at all those that were still "awake" and yelled out, "But I wouldn't be adverse to some suggestions!"

            At the incredulous look from Anya he shrugged again and excused, "It's my "Word-a-Day" calendar.  It's done wonders for my vocabulary."  Anya just snorted and rolled her eyes.

            Suddenly, the glowing around Jimmy's head quit and Buffy stood up and stepped towards the group.  With barely a glance at the others, she grabbed Willow's wrist and began dragging her towards the table and Jimmy.

            "Buffy…what?" Willow tried to ask what the Slayer was doing.

            "Will, I need your help.  I've run into a…complication, and it requires your area of expertise.  Just please, trust me." Buffy said in one breath as they sat back down on either side of Jimmy, who still looked like he was in a trance.

            "Uh, I do trust you Buffy, but what is going on?" Willow asked.

            Buffy looked hesitant for a moment before looking her best friend in the eye.  "I found something in Jimmy's mind…something I need your help with.  I'm going to put both of us inside his mind so that we can actually have a chance at helping him.  Don't worry, I promise I'll protect you from the voices.  I know I can." Buffy said, sounding extremely sure of herself, and the look in her eyes as she looked back into Willow's only added to it.

            Willow smiled and nodded, making herself comfortable in the chair Buffy had telekinetically put underneath her.  Smiling, Willow answered Buffy, "I trust you Buffy.  And…I'm sorry about doubting what you were…are going through.  It must be…terrible."

            Buffy's grin that had formed when Willow said she trusted her, faded a few marks but didn't disappear as she replied back, "No, I'm the one that's sorry.  I shouldn't have done what I did to you.  It was wrong of me to force you into that with no warning.  And…it helps having something or someone to focus on.  And right now, that's helping Jimmy.  So, ready?"

            Willow nodded and Buffy placed her left hand by Willow's ear, and her right hand by Jimmy's, and before anybody could do anything, the golden glow returned, forming a sort of half-ring  as Buffy and Willow's eyes closed, their consciousnesses traveling into Jimmy's.

            Inside Jimmy's mind, this time Buffy with Willow appeared in the hall of cabinets.  They spent a few moments getting oriented in the change of location.  Willow was the first to comment on the scenery.

            "Wow.  This is the inside of a person's mind?  Or is it just Jimmy's?" she asked, looking all around.

            Buffy shrugged, then answered the question on pure instinct.  "I think it's everybody's minds.  Except for anybody truly exceptional.  Come on, what I need your help with is down this way."

            Willow nodded and started walking behind her friend.  Then she noticed something a bit…odd.

            "Buffy…there are locks on all of the cabinets.  Why?" she asked.

            Buffy shrugged, and then sighed as she answered, "There are a few that don't have locks on them.  At least not the kinds on these.  Those that don't…apply to body functions.  The rest are all memory or mental cabinets."

            Willow blinked as she considered what that meant.  And then she remembered why they were in here at all.  Anyanka's spell, as a vengeance demon, must have done this, she realized.  "Oh," was all she said aloud.

            Before too long, they were back at the office door that Buffy had opened and had immediately closed upon seeing what was behind it, just to go and get Willow.

            "What I need your help with is behind this door," Buffy said, staring at it for a few more moments.  Then she looked at Willow and smiled when she actually looked at the astral form of her best friend.

            "What?" Willow asked when she caught the look.

            "Nothing," Buffy said with a broad smile.  She almost giggled, but a disturbingly familiar tug to her right brought her back to the mission at hand.  "Be sure to stay away from that black cabinet on the other side of me.  It's not something you want to deal with at the moment.  Trust me."

            Willow immediately nodded, and her very being exuded her absolute trust in Buffy in this matter.  "Right.  Stay away from black cabinets.  Why?"

            In response, Buffy just stared for a few moments before stepping aside allowing Willow to see the cabinet in question.  Then she put her hand just inside of a foot from the cabinet…and to Willow's eye it looked like what it might be like to see a black hole devour a star or something else.  Buffy's hand immediately began to flicker and almost stretched around and around to disappear into an infinitesimally small point, but the golden astral form of the Slayer pulled her extremity back just in time and rubbed it, almost as though alleviating some minor pain before returning to the door.

            "Oh," was all Willow could say.

            Buffy nodded.  "Yeah.  So come on, we've got work to do," she said as she opened the office door.

            "Oh!" Willow said with considerably more enthusiasm at the sight before the two astral invaders.

            In the real world, the Slayerettes, plus Whistler and Faith, turned back to their conversation, minus Willow, with surprising ease, as though what had just happened was old hand.  Which, in a disturbing thought, was.

            "Uh, ok, now that big sis is off in lala land again," Dawn waved off the incident, "For the fifth, and hopefully final time, Whistler!  You said I have powers.  I want to know what the heck they are, what the heck you were talking about, and I want to know how I can get them!  Or else."  Dawn said the last part trying to sound intimidating while putting her fists on her waist.

            Whistler raised an eyebrow in mock interest.  "This is supposed to be intimidating?" he asked.

            Dawn smiled brightly at the Balance demon's nonchalance.  "Well, yeah, but actually this is what is really intimidating," Dawn said, jerking her thumb over her shoulder as both Xander and Faith appeared behind the young Key and both assuming their worst "poker face" stares.

            Whistler stared at the trio for some moments before coughing slightly and turned to his counterpart, whispering not exactly softly, "Ya know?  That actually is very intimidating."

            "Answer the question Whistler," Xander demanded.

            Looking up, Whistler just shrugged and shared a look of "what do I do now?" with Anya, before turning back to the group of mortals and tried to answer, to the best of his ability, what exactly the Key was.

            "It's a computer," Willow said with some surprise, though her voice was kinda bland about it.

            "Yeah, and it's also a very advanced computer if you take a close enough look at it Will," Buffy retorted, pushing her friend inside with her.

            The "office" behind the office door really wasn't much to look at.  Just a desk with a comfortable looking chair in front of it, and a very advanced looking computer.  To Buffy's eyes anyway.  To Willow, it was both a familiar piece of recognized technology, and an enigmatic source of profound confusion.

            "But…what's it doing in…here of all places?" the red hacker asked in a deeply confused voice.

            Buffy shrugged again and directed Willow around until they were both standing before the desk.  "I'm not really sure.  Maybe all that talk teachers tell us in Psych and Biology about our brains being the most advanced "computers" in current existence isn't as much a stretch as most think.  Besides, keep in mind here Will, everything here is very abstract.  You think that there's really a hall of cabinets inside Jimmy's head?  Or inside anyone else's?  This is just how our, or rather my brain and mind is interpreting the neuro-electric signals that I'm receiving from Jimmy's mind.  Consider this nothing but a very…real dream."

            Willow nodded as Buffy explained, and moved to the chair before the computer by the time she had finished.  "Real as in, any changes we make in here are probably going to effect Jimmy in the real world?"

            Buffy nodded and leaned down to put her face in the perfect place to look over Willow's shoulder as she worked on Jimmy's "mind", putting her right hand on the desk, and her left on the back of the chair Willow was sitting in.  "Yep.  And probably in more ways than you could guess.  Boot her up."

            "Don't you mean 'boot him up'?"  Willow giggled.

            Buffy smirked and used her right hand to lightly punch her best friend in the shoulder.  "Smart aleck!" Buffy accused with a "serious" façade.  Willow smiled back and "booted up" the computer in front of her and began to "work".

            Everyone was standing there waiting for Whistler to answer Dawn's demand.  Only Jimmy, Buffy, and Willow were sitting, but as they weren't capable of paying attention anyway…

            "Well, I don't know much, but what I do know is a long enough story as it is.  And very complicated.  So if you need anything repeated, just go ahead and stop me…" Whistler was stalling.

            "Whistler!" Dawn shouted, giving him a stern glare.

            "All right, all right!" Whistler sighed.  "OK, first thing first, there are several varieties of 'the Key'.  One of which you apparently are, though I'm still not certain which."

            "What's that supposed to mean?" Faith demanded.

            Whistler could only shrug and look to Anya for aid.  She stepped next to her fellow demon and answered Faith's question.  "The Key is obviously a source of great and tremendous power, otherwise why would Glory want it right?  It's just that in some ways, there are different things given the same name.  The Key is one of such things."

            "Glory wanted to open up an interdimensional portal to go back to her home dimension and to do that she would need either the Key of Dimensions, which I think has been reported lost somewhere in Mt. Olympus the home of the gods, or the Key to all.  I think that's what Dawn is, because Glory tracked it through the residual magical and energy signature after the Priests transformed it into Dawn.  Another name for the Key to all, is the Source.  Whistler can explain the rest as I've just learned all of this a short time ago." Anya walked back to the others and faced Whistler.

            The Balance demon just sighed again, but nodded his thanks to Anya.  "The Source has a pretty big history, but in short, it's the ultimate power anything can have access to.  It was created by higher beings, which by the way were not born nor evolved on Earth in case you ask, called "The Guardians".  The Guardians, unfortunately, are extinct in this universe, they died giving their lives and power to protect us from something called the Anti-Monitor.  Don't ask, because this is just second-hand information at best.  They were gone after that, but their power, the Source remained behind."

            "A legion of protectors the Guardians had formed a long time ago took possession of the Source and used it to continue the Guardians' legacy.  Those protectors were called…the Green Lantern Corp." Whistler waited for a moment.

            "Why am I not surprised?" Xander almost cursed as he silently fumed.

            "Wait just a second here!" Dawn exclaimed.  "You mean to say that Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern comics were real too!  How many comics in publication now are real?!"

            "About ninety percent in distribution.  Uh, except X-men and other such related ones.  That's based on half-demons, not evolved humans." Whistler answered matter-of-factly.

            The humans present just blinked and they all muttered an overwhelmed, "Oh."

            "So…is the Green Lantern Corp still…ya know?" Dawn asked.

            "Obviously not kiddo," Whistler shrugged.  "Good news is they were in full operation until about a thousand or so years ago.  I don't know the whole detailed story, but rumor had it that some alien race came to power and when they found humans, they enslaved them, using them as soldiers, workers…hosts, among plenty of other nasty stuff.  The Lanterns tried to stop the atrocity, but they could only do so much, and their numbers weren't big enough to take care of everything.  So they took a gamble.  They sent the Source to Earth and made this planet their new headquarters.  They drove off the aliens, but unfortunately by the time everything was over, the Source was lost, and the Lanterns left on the planet quickly lost what powers it gave them.  The Lanterns across the rest of the universe soon found themselves in the same predicament and…"

            There was quiet in the large room after Whistler finished his story, until," So…I'm not the Key, I'm the Source?" Dawn asked as a revelation.

            Whistler shook his head, his face scrunching in partial confusion partial frustration at her.  "Well, not quite.  Or at least I'm not a hundred percent sure.  There's a better chance that you're the Key to Dimensions than the Source, because it's unconfirmed rumors that Anya mentioned about Mt. Olympus." Whistler explained.

            "So how can we be sure?" Dawn asked.

            Whistler stayed quiet, staring at nothing and not moving for several seconds.  "Sorry?" he finally blurted, sweat glistening on his forehead under his trademark hat.

            Dawn almost rolled her eyes but managed to quell the gesture and just asked again, "How can we be sure which 'Key' I am?  Is there some kind of demon sense you can use?  Or maybe Buffy or one of the others' powers can find out?"

            Definitely sweating now, Whistler looked back and forth nervously before taking a definite step back.  "Uhh…ya know what, I'm gonna go check on the boys…see if they're doin' a good job…"  He turned around to beat a hasty retreat to the back of the shop, but all of a sudden, also with a slight gust of wind, Xander was directly in his way.

            "Is there a way to tell Whistler?" Xander asked the Balance demon.

            "Uhhh…"

            "Maybe you should let me have him for a while Xan," Faith quipped as she came up behind the demon, cracking her knuckles.  "I'm actually kinda curious what those chains of mine can do."

            "No!" there was a sudden shout, startling everybody.

            Tara stood and walked directly up to Faith.  "N-no, you can't!  We…we can't use our powers like this!  It…it's not right, and not why we were given them.  If Whistler isn't telling us something…then he has a good reason for it and we should respect his privacy."

            Everyone looked surprised at the young woman, and was even more so when she looked directly at Faith.  "You had darkness in your soul Faith, and it took a lot to bring you back from it.  Buffy risked everything and more to pull you out of it…and I'm not about to let you go so easily back into it Faith.  Not any of us." Tara said with a strength of conviction that shocked the slayer and more than half the people in the room.  Including Tara herself.

            "I-I'm sorry Whistler," Tara apologized for the behavior of the others in threatening him.

            "Uh, it's okay angel," he said somewhat affectionately.  Then he looked rather guilty.

            "But, uh, they're right.  I do know a way to find out for sure.  And if she is the Source…then I also know a way to activate it and give her even more powers than all the others here combined.  Slayer strength included in the package." Whistler admitted.

            Dawn blinked in surprise, and to be quite blunt about it, she was so overwhelmed that she did the only thing that made any sense to do under the circumstances.

            She fainted.

            "Well…that's the best I can do," Willow said to Buffy in what felt like several hours later.  "I mean, I wasn't quite able to break the full encryption, but I put a heavy dent in it, and that may allow Jimmy to access some of his memories, and more later on, so long as nothing comes back and, well "fixes" the locks on his memories.  It's not everything, but number one thing in hacking is patience.  Unfortunately that's not an option here."

            "No kidding," Buffy muttered as she leaned back in the chair that had manifested at her will.

            Taking a deep breath and letting out a long sigh, Buffy stared at the ceiling of the "room" for several moments before leaning back forward and taking Willow's hand.  "All right, we've done as much as we can for the moment.  It might take Jimmy some time to adapt to the changes we've made so far, so it's a good idea to take a break."

            "Take a break?" Willow asked as she stood back from the computer terminal.  "That seems to imply that we'll be coming back in here.  We aren't are we?"

            Buffy just shrugged.  "It's up to Jimmy and if he's satisfied with the progress or wants us to try again…or if like you said, someone comes along and "fixes" the locks we've managed to break or at least weaken.  Come on Will, we've got to catch up with the real world as it is."  Buffy then touched her friend's shoulder and there was a flash of light and an unforgiving tugging sensation followed by a feeling of freefall, only in reverse, and Willow suddenly found herself back in her body.

            "Whoa, what a trip," Willow whispered in awe as she got used to being in her body again and not in Jimmy's head.  Then she realized with a start that she had memories of the past few minutes other than those she experienced with Buffy in Jimmy's mind.  She remembered mostly just sitting here and staring off into the distance, but she could also hear what was going on around her, so she wasn't fully lost on what the others were talking about at the time.

            Buffy, beside her, was also blinking in surprise, apparently experiencing the same wonderment at the mixed memories.  'Very neat-o,' Buffy thought aloud, even though everyone in the room could hear.