Disclaimer: Same as always.

Chapter Ten

Willow did do the background check, and didn't find much. Apparently it was a newer band, just being discovered. At first, Buffy realized how insane she seemed, looking up a band just because she had a "feeling". That was just it. It wasn't a feeling, it was more than that. A connection? More like the two combined.

What they found first were a list of names, none of which sparked much of anything. Liza Torres, Ashlee Storm, Cynthia West, and Michelle Morgan. They were probably just stage names anyway. The biography only said that the four girls in the group had never met before writing the songs and recording the album.

After going to ten websites and finding nothing but the same biography except worded differently, audio clips, and lyrics, Buffy decided to give up on her crazy "feeling" and to come back to reality. The feeling had started to fade, so it could have been she had just liked their songs. She was too confused to tell. That emotion didn't even feel like hers anymore.

Buffy decided to shrug it off and move onto more important subjects. "So . . . About me being broke . . . How broke, exactly, do you mean?"

Tara looked at Buffy. "Well, probably not as much as you're thinking, but enough to get worried. You still have some money, but . . . but after your mother's medical bills and both of your . . . funeral costs, there wasn't much. Just enough to have made it through the summer."

Buffy sighed. "I'll hit the job adds. Where's the paper?"

Willow nodded toward the kitchen. "On the table."

"Thanks."

Buffy went to the kitchen to get the paper, hoping to find something away from the fast food franchise. Although, when she saw the kitchen table, it completely barren, save for a few place mats. 'Maybe I'll just work at the Magic Box. It has to be better than the Double Meat Palace, but that's not saying much . . . Besides. Time can't go all weird this time,' she thought.

She walked back to the group, who now had the television on. It was the 12:00 news. Buffy hadn't even noticed the time, since Willow & Tara had skipped classes that day. "Uh, guys?"

The other three girls simultaneously glanced up at her. "Yeah?"

"Giles."

To confirm what she was saying, Willow looked at the clock. "Dammit. His flight was supposed to get in at 12:00, right?"

"Yeah."

Dawn quickly turned off the t.v., found the car keys, and tossed them to Willow.

"Thanks Dawn" came Willow's response. Willow looked to Tara. "Should we just use magick this time or do things the old-fashioned way?"

Tara looked back at her. "Magick. There's just no time."

After saying a few words in a language Buffy didn't understand, Willow and Tara were engulfed in a bright, golden light. When the light faded, they were now out of their pajamas and dressed in street clothes.

Buffy was still in her halter, but there was no time to change it. While Dawn had still been sleeping, Buffy had placed the leather jacket back in her closet, but now Buffy decided to let it slip, as it was still very cold outside. "Hey, Dawn. Can I borrow your leather jacket?"

Dawn sighed. "Okay. But I get to borrow your black, strapless halter for the school dance tomorrow."

Buffy returned the sigh. "All right. Thanks."

Both Summers girls rushed upstairs; Buffy for the jacket, Dawn to get completely changed. In less than five minutes, both returned downstairs fully dressed and ready to go.

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They didn't reach the airport until 12:40, but were relieved since the flight was late anyway. The four women had to wait only minutes before another announcement came on saying Flight 926 had just arrived.

Buffy spotted him as soon as the crowd had cleared out. He did the same with her. He walked to the girls, put his luggage down, and as soon as he had, Buffy hugged him at least twice as hard as her sister had in her room when Buffy had first come back in this world.

When she let go, he moved on to Dawn, Tara, and Willow, right before the two missing gang members arrived.

Anya was the first to speak, complaining as usual. "We're late. I knew we'd be late. You see, Xander's never heard of the gas petal."

Xander sighed. "An. We're here now, okay? Let it go."

Anya continued as if he'd never spoken. "But we were having sex, so at least we have a good excuse."

Xander let out another sigh. "I don't really think they needed to know that."

"We really didn't," Buffy said.

Giles was on the verge of crying at the sight of Buffy alive. "My God, Buffy. There's not enough time."

"I know. I've missed you. I've missed all of you. It's just . . . there's a lot you don't know, and I really need to tell you, but . . . It's harder. Harder with you all."

Buffy noticed she had been talking a bit louder than she'd intended, and some strangers were looking at her very oddly. It didn't help much that she was crying. She continued in a whisper. "I'll tell you all later. Tonight? Tonight. I promise to tell you all tonight."

Everyone else looked at her with confusion, but nodded.

Buffy repeated what she had said.

"Tonight."

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At 7:00 that night, everyone, excluding Spike, was gathered in the Summers' living room. Even after the not-so-realistic-dream she'd had, Buffy knew she had to tell them almost everything. Enough so she wouldn't have to have all sorts of feelings locked up inside her that no one else but Spike could understand. She'd made that mistake once before and was not about to do it again. Buffy finally had enough courage inside her to tell them what they needed to know. Her only hope was that they didn't the way she kept thinking they'd react. Her dream . . . was extremely unrealistic to her now . . . but, anything was possible in a world like this. Anything bad, anything good. Anything.

Buffy had positioned herself between Tara, Willow, and even the almost squished Dawn on the end opposite of Willow. Giles sat in a wooden chair, and Xander & Anya shared an oversized recliner. Anya had the only bowl of popcorn rested on her lap, occasionally shoving hand fulls in her mouth. Aside from the crunches of popcorn, the room was silent, and all eyes fell on Buffy. If their gazes could burn, she'd be ash by now.

Buffy looked up from her lap and stared. Not at any person, but it was easier that way. "Guys. There's a lot you need to know."

She went on to tell about the other world, being in Heaven, telling Spike first in both worlds, the three nerds, and Willow almost destroying the world. Again, she left out everything about Tara being killed, and everything about her and Spike's "relationship". She knew the inevitable question from Willow would come.

"Uh . . . Buffy? Why did I almost destroy the world?"

"Because . . . because you kind of got addicted to magick. And you got pretty angry by me getting shot and almost killed."

Dawn started to cry. Willow was next. Then Tara. Anya had just grabbed another handful of popcorn and was about to put it in her mouth, but paused in the lift and the popcorn fell to the floor. Buffy knew certain things she'd left out had started to fill themselves in in their memories. Willow driving the car into the wall, Tara and Willow's break up, Xander and Anya's not-so-perfect wedding, Anya returning to her vengeful ways, and Willow, at least, remembered Tara being shot. Apparently, she was the only one. Willow embraced Tara, and began crying even harder. Thankfully, no one seemed to remember anything between her and Spike. But was that necessarily a good thing?

Anya immediately got up from Xander's lap and walked out the door. Xander went after her. No one spoke. The silence ate away at Buffy, like termites to wood. The crying really wasn't helping. But, then she realized she was crying, too. It continued for at least twenty minutes before Buffy had had enough. Still in the halter, she decided to go patrolling. She quickly told them before rushing out the door without a coat. 'Yay. Now I get to freeze my ass off. This day had just been endless fun . . .,'she thought. She wanted to work off the feeling she had. There were honestly no words to describe it, but she really didn't like it. Unfortunately, it was a completely vamp free night, which was somewhat unusual. It didn't help much that Buffy kept her eyes mostly to the ground, deep in thought. 'Hey. It's not all bad. Nobody stabbed me this time. That's a plus,' she thought.

Buffy looked up just in time to realize she was about to have a head-on collision with Spike who had his gaze to the ground. "Spike."

He stopped in mid-stride. "Buffy. I was on my way to your house."

"Well, then I hate to tell you, but you're going in the wrong direction."

Spike appeared to be noticing this for the first time. "Oh. Yeah. Sorry."

She almost cracked up, right there. "Some deep thought you had going there."

"It's not my fault. I didn't ask for you to tell me all of what you did."

Buffy knew he was just playing around, btu she couldn't take it. She'd had enough. Again. Although, this time she was marginally more overwhelmed and relieved at the same time. Buffy's legs collapsed beneath her and she was soon on her knees on the ground with her head in her hands crying.

Spike didn't know whether to stay standing or bend down to comfort her, so he stayed standing. "I'm sorry. I never meant . . . I'm sorry. But it's not just that, is it?"

She continued crying, but let her hands drop and looked up at him. "No. It's not."

He looked at her with one of those knowing glancing he usually used when he had something to brag about, but Buffy could tell that was not his intent here. "You told them."

She nodded. "Yeah. I did. I've been wishing over and over again in my head that I didn't, but I think it's better this way. If I'm stuck here for a while I figure I might as well not repeat past mistakes."

Her crying had almost stopped, so he took it as an opportunity to reach his arm down to help her up. She accepted. After another moment or so, the crying had ceased completely, and they walked in the correct direction of her home.

"I know it's hard fo you here, but . . . You have to face them sooner or later. Trust me. The time between it only makes things worse."

"I know. And it is hard. But I do choose sooner. It's not like I'll be any more willing an hour, or five, from now."

"Good choice."

When they reached her house, he waited by the sidewalk as she slowly walked to the front door. Buffy paused for a moment or so before giving a nod to Spike and going in. It was time to face the music.

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It was amazing how much a difference an hour could make. No one was crying anymore, but still there was no sign of Xander or Anya. Everyone looked at Buffy with slightly relieved eyes.

"Buffy." Dawn said the name that was on everyone's lips.

"Yeah. Look. I'm sorry about just rushing out before."

"No really. It's okay. It's not like we were really giving you any reasons to stay . . . but, the news. There's this one story that's been on every station."

Dawn continued for Willow. "Yeah, and it's so weird. They've found like five corpses burnt to a crisp in the past five days, all just outside Sunnydale."

"They're claiming it's spontaneous combustion, but . . ." Willow said.

"But we think it might be something else," Giles added.

Buffy's eyes widened. "Mortem."

Giles nodded. "Yes. And much of it."

"No, not mortem. Mortem. The hell god Mortem. Halfrek told me a few things about her, and so did Spike, but this must be her."

"Why? Did they mention flaming was her specialty?" Willow asked.

Buffy shook her head. "No. But I've just got this feeling . . ."

"As long as it's not the same feeling you had about that band, then I guess we can work with this."

Buffy actually did laugh. It felt good, seeing as she hadn't done it for a while. "No. And yeah. But mostly, no."

Willow also let out a short giggle. "Okay. Then let's hit the net."