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(c) November 1999, Eleri McCleod

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Buffy hit the ground rolling, coming up to her feet with no wasted motion. She didn't bother to check for Angel, she could feel his presence beside her as she continued after the vamp. "Isn't there some rule about Turning marathon runners?" she threw out, annoyed, not really expecting Angel to answer. This vamp was going to run her into the ground unless he gave her some kind of opening.

Ask and ye shall receive, she quoted triumphantly, using a conveniently placed car, one she hadn't remembered noticing just second ago, to spring into the air and tackle the slender vamp. Not waiting to turn him over, she thrust the stake through his back as Angel came around the front of the car.

"Where'd you pick up that trick?" he inquired, helping her to her feet. A bolt of sensation shot up her arm at the contact, their eyes meeting.

"Strictly spur of the moment." She shivered slightly, returning his gaze as realization flowed through her. He still felt it as well. She covered his hand on her arm with her own, as always, grateful for his presence.

Gently, he laced their fingers and tugged her back the way they'd run. "So, what's left on tonight's patrol?"

The Slayer gave a small sigh, struck once again by the cruel joke the fates had played on them. Their love seemed to trap them instead of freeing them to share that love. Why can't my life be simple, she asked rhetorically for probably the thousandth time. Why can't I just be a normal girl, with a normal boyfriend and a normal life ahead of me?

"Buffy?"

"What?" she asked, Angel's warm voice pulling her from her personal world of thought. "Oh. Yeah. We're done. It's been kind of slow so Giles thought I could use a little extra rest. You know, Ascension and all that."

He stared down at her, concern obvious on his face. She knew her words were too fast, running over each other. "What's wrong?"

She paused, unable to look at him and tell a lie. "It's nothing."

Only he knew when she was lying. "You don't have Nothing Face. You have Something Face," he spoke gently, turning her own oft-used phrase back at her.

"No, really," she insisted, starting down the road again. She would only hurt him if she told him what she was dwelling on. Their relationship was hard enough as it was. "Did you see how that vamp disappeared for a second? It was too weird. Maybe Giles will know how he did it."

She heard his soft sigh as he followed her lead down the road. Grateful for his silent understanding, her hand tightened on his. She just wasn't ready to talk about it, especially to him. He was part of her troubles, one of the things that kept her awake so many nights. His hand returned the pressure, easing the ache that had started to creep up her chest. Warmth filled her at the gesture. He would always be there for her. It was a comforting thought.

Carefully emptying her mind, Buffy enjoyed the comfortable in the silence that enveloped them. Their lives were chaotic to say the least, so quiet moments were rare, lending a specialness to their silent walk. A small tingle worked its way down her spine at the thought. It was a little too quiet for a Friday night in Sunnydale. Her eyes narrowed, taking in the street, the trash lining the gutters, the grills over shop fronts and the complete stillness surrounding them. A sudden shout shattered that stillness.

"The alley," she pinpointed the source and took off. The sound of pounding feet and harsh breathing moved toward them as they planted themselves in the mouth of the alley the shout had originated in. She shot Angel a quick grin. "I guess patrol's not over just yet."

Holding back a chuckle as he saluted her with his stake, she focused on the figures now emerging into the light. "Oz?" Buffy called, confused voice carrying easily over the din as the musician and another teen spilled into the street followed by four vampires. The vamps paused, seeing the newcomers armed with stakes.

The Slayer stepped in front of Oz, twirling the stake between her fingers. Setting aside the questions skittering around her brain, she concentrated on the new threat. "Didn't your mother teach you not to play with your food?" Not bothering to wait for a response, she threw the stake with fatal accuracy and calmly reached for another. "Next?"

The three other vamps exploded into action as she and Angel moved in concert away from the speechless Oz and the other teen, whom she'd finally figured out was Larry, the class bully of all people. Vamp number two came at her while three and four went after Angel. Always picking on the guy, she thought to herself, easily ducking a clumsy attempt to grab her shoulders. A single foot swipe brought the medium-sized male down on his back hard. Another quick move by the Slayer and number two was dust. Already shifting to help Angel, vamp dust floating around her ankles, the voice in the back of her head started murmuring. Something wasn't right. This was too easy.

Vamps three and four exploded simultaneously as Buffy blocked another inept punch, striking with the stake quickly, Angel's movement almost identical. "Like I said," she smiled over at Angel as the last bit of vamp dust settled to the ground. "Patrol's over for tonight."

He returned her infectious grin, reaching to give Oz a hand up from his seat on the concrete where he'd been strangely silent ever since his graceless fall when the Slayer and Angel had appeared at the mouth of the alley. Buffy froze when the easy-going werewolf thrust a cross in the vampire's face, the little voice growing louder. "Oz?" he questioned quietly, hurt and confusion plain to her ears. He'd once told her that the two of them had always respected each other, one non-human to the other. This unexpected turn had to cut more than he would ever admit.

"What's your deal?" Galvanized into action, Buffy smacked the cross from his hand and pulled him upright in one smooth motion. "Are you tripping? Where's Willow?"

Oz backed away from her hurriedly. "You're seeing them, too, right?" Catching Larry's nod out of the corner of her eye, she could only stare at them as the musician pulled another cross out of his pocket. What was going on? "You're Buffy. The Slayer Buffy?"

She stared at him, unease working its way down her spine. "We're one for one in the names category. Who else would I be?"

"You're dead."

Whatever thoughts had been flying through her head disappeared at his words, the voice an insistent presence. She continued to stare at her friend, barely conscious of Angel's hand on her back. "What do you mean I'm dead?" The whispered words carried easily across the silent distance.

"I mean, the Master killed you a week ago," he explained slowly, lowering the cross to his side. The confused expression never left his face. "I saw it. And your buddy, the vampire? He's dust. Xander got him, just before you killed Xander."

She leaned back into Angel, unwilling to even process the thought of him dead again. That unease wormed its way through her, wrapping around her gut and squeezing. Something was wrong and she was getting the feeling that it wasn't Oz.

Angel's hand tightened on her back, even in the midst of confusion sending a warm tingle down her spine. "Buffy, Oz is human."

She whirled to face him, the tingle evaporated instantly. He merely stared back at her, confusion clouding his eyes. The past few minutes replayed in her mind: chasing the vamp, it disappearing, her headlong tumble, the jump onto a car that hadn't been there just moments ago. The cloud cleared from Angel's eyes just as she put it all together. "We're not in Kansas anymore?"

"I'm getting that feeling," he agreed, taking her hand once more, gripping it tightly. She clung to him, mind not wanting to accept what had to be reality. They weren't in their Sunnydale and they had no idea how they'd gotten here, wherever 'here' was.

"We need Giles."

Their simultaneously spoken words would have made her smile if the situation hadn't been quite so freak-worthy. Oz's voice penetrated the clamoring voice in her head. "I take it you're acquainted with our fearless leader?"

Buffy glanced up at her love. How do we answer this one? The question bounced silently back and forth between them. She looked back to de-werewolfed teen. "Sort of."

Unexpectedly, Larry barked out a laugh. "Come on, Oz, a dead Slayer and a dead vampire? That's right up his alley. Besides, if they wanted us dead, we'd be dead by now." Silently, Buffy agreed as the maybe-not-the-class-bully jogged across the street to Oz's van and opened the door with a flourish. "After you."

*****

Buffy decided to upgrade the silence from tense to uncomfortable during the short ride to the school and its library. Glancing up, she caught Oz's gaze in the rearview mirror as he pulled into the parking lot. An unexpected grin covered his face, transforming him into the laid-back teen she knew. His eyes stayed on hers as he placed the van in park and flipped the engine off. What was he grinning about, she wondered, mouth opening to ask just that when he chuckled and answered before she spoke.

"You have to take your laughs where you can these days," he stated, the smile fading. "We don't get many chances around here."

She felt a surge of sympathy for this version of Sunnydale. She only had the Mayor to contend with, not the Master and his horde of vampire followers. Following the two teens across the parking lot and into the school, Buffy wondered what other surprises awaited her this evening. She and Angel hung back as Oz and Larry entered the library. "At least this is the same," she remarked to Angel, holding the door open.

"Giles," Oz called, moving into the large room. "We, uh, ran into some acquaintances on patrol. You might want to talk with them."

The librarian walked slowly out of his office, eyes still focused on the book he held before him. "Yes, of course." He stopped at the center table and placed the heavy volume down carefully before looking up. "I've found nothing so far to help..." he trailed off, confusion flashing over his face as Buffy smiled gently at him. "Ms. Summers?" A light entered his eyes for a split second before the resignation returned. "You're dead," he spoke quietly, grief leaking from the soft words.

"So I've heard. But that wasn't me." She stared up at him, so different, yet the same, as her Giles. He looked tired, haggard even. What had he gone through without her here? Could one person really make that much of a difference? Could she make a difference here? But first, how to explain their presence in a world where they no longer existed? "Would the name Anyanka mean anything to you?"

"Anyanka," he repeated quietly. "She granted a wish that seems to have had an adverse effect on our world."

The Slayer smiled slightly at the understatement, still trying to wrap her brain around the idea that she wasn't where she was supposed to be. "You mean on your world. Angel and I were chasing a vamp and he disappeared in mid-run for a split second. The next thing I knew we were here. There was no little door, no flash of light, nada. My mom and my Giles are going to be wigging hard if I don't get back there."

"Are you implying that you've been brought here from a, well, a parallel universe?" he stuttered out, disbelief clear in his voice.

Exchanging glances with Angel, Buffy took a deep breath, not sure they weren't all going to bust out laughing at her. "Yes."

Giles didn't laugh. He began pacing the large open area in front of the main table, handkerchief out to polish his glasses. "A parallel universe. And you think Anyanka did this? What you're describing doesn't seem to fall into her pattern. No, I don't think she could have sent you here. I destroyed her powercenter a week ago. Then the questions are: who did and for what reason?" He paused, turning to look at Buffy. She could almost see his thoughts as they flew through his mind, contemplating the repercussions of her presence. Suddenly, his face softened and a gentle smile lifted his lips. "You're very different from her."

She stared at him, taken aback by the observation. "I'm me. How could I be different?"

"For one thing, you never lived here in Sunnydale," Oz's voice answered. She looked over to where he sat on the table, legs kicking idly. He and Larry had been talking quietly since they'd entered the library. Now they stared back at her expectantly. For what, she had no idea.

The implications of her home being somewhere else slowly sinking in, she turned back to Giles. "If I never lived in Sunnydale, then you couldn't have been my Watcher." She stopped, the next thought creating an ache deep inside her. Slowly, she turned to Angel, who again, was thinking the same thing her mind kept rejecting as impossible. "I never would have met you." Her heart wept for the other Slayer who had had none of the exceptional people in her life that she had. "She must have been very lonely."

Giles didn't respond, the non-reply telling her what he could not. She felt Angel's hand cupping her shoulder, lending what support he could. Never again would she complain about her family, her friends if she got back. Not if, she reprimanded herself. When, when you get back.

"You're lucky to have people around you who care..." the older man said, moving closer to where she stood for the first time. His eyes widened behind the glasses as he stared at her, mind working furiously once again. "My counterpart is your Watcher?"

"Yeah," she stated simply, ignoring the fact that Giles wasn't officially her Watcher anymore. "So we've got a couple questions on the table," she quickly steered the topic toward things easier to deal with. "How? That's your department, not mine. Why? I'm going to go with a certain Master who's in desperate need of killing, which I've done once before I might add. And now I'm going to add another question. How do we get back?" She purposefully ignored the shiver that worked its way down her spine as well as the shocked faces of the others at her blithe dismissal of the Master. That was another one she'd deal with later. Things were too muddled in her brain to work that one out.

The Watcher's eyebrows rose as she ticked off points on one hand, obviously taken aback by her abrupt sense of humor. "The 'how' may take care of itself, actually. If you were sent here for a particular reason, then it's quite possible you'll simply be returned when your task is complete."

Buffy took one look around the library, her home away from home. Now, literally, away from home. "Then let's get to work. We've got some researching to do."

*****

Giles started slightly as Buffy closed her book with a thud, sighing. This Buffy Summers had as much patience as the other one had had. She glanced over at Angel, pulling his attention. "This is getting us nowhere. We need Willow."

A startled silence settled over the room. Giles cleared his throat delicately before speaking. "Willow Rosenberg?"

"Duh, is there another Willow in this High School?" Her eyes flicked between Giles and the two teens. They could only stare back, expressions solemn. Giles saw when it clicked, when the knowledge came back to her. Another sigh escaped as she continued, "Oh, right. Evil Willow in this world. Whatever happened to her anyway?"

"She's dead."

The older man felt a tug of grief at Oz's softly spoken words. He'd only known her for such a short time, too short for the level of pain he always experienced when forced to remember her loss. Willow Rosenberg had been a shy, quiet, but brilliant young woman. It was one of the things he regretted the most about not being able to stop the vampires that had attacked her, that he'd never get to see her turn into the woman he knew she could become. The vampire she'd been was a cruel mockery of that woman.

"Okay," Buffy stated decisively. "Oz, you're good with computers, aren't you?"

He slowly closed the tome on the table in front of him. "I've done my share of hacking."

She jumped to her feet, giving Giles the impression she was ready to do something other then look at dusty books. "Well get cracking. Find anything and everything that could have brought us here. Giles," she whirled to face him, startling a second tiny jump out of him. "We need to know more about what's going on here. Is there anything in town we have to worry about aside from the Master? You know, Fish Monsters, Ethan Rayne, Balthazar, Richard Wilkins, *anything* else that we could have been brought here for. 'Cause I'm kind of looking forward to killing the Master again."

Giles vaguely heard Oz's, "I guess I'm computer guy," as the Slayer directed Larry to keep searching the books. This Buffy was a well-oiled machine, used to working with a group. The one he'd met a week ago had told him she didn't play well with others. Did she have fellow soldiers in her struggle in her world? Why had his counterpart allowed it? Before the Master had risen, secrecy had been imperative. And that had been an impressive list of enemies she had thrown out so blithely.

The thought stopped him from rising with the others. Ethan? How did she know about Ethan? Had he come to her Sunnydale? Had he come looking for Giles, for Ripper, and ended up tangling with the Slayer? A swift anger bubbled up, stealing his breath. The damned fool had no business showing his face in Giles' town. If Ethan ever decides to come here, Giles started the thought, anger simmering higher. But he never completed it as Buffy's voice broke through the red haze that clouded his vision. Slowly, he focused back in on the decisions going on without him.

"While these guys are doing the Watcher thingie, you and I can head over and see if Willy is still alive in this Bizarroland." She grabbed her jacket from her chair, before Angel caught her arm. Giles read the question in her eyes before the dark-haired man spoke.

"I've got less than an hour."

The librarian frowned at the words, comprehension beyond him. But the Slayer obviously knew what he was talking about as she straightened, lips tightening. What was going on? The Slayer and the dark haired man stared at each other, oblivious to the others in their silent communication. Giles looked back and forth between Oz and Larry, whose sudden stillness had told him they knew more than he did. Buffy took a careful step forward, moving in front of Angel. A frown creased the Watcher's face as she took another couple of steps, not so subtly putting maneuvering space between him and the man behind her. What was he missing?

"Giles, have you ever read about a vampire named Angelus?" she asked slowly, meeting his eyes solidly.

"Angelus," he repeated, memory stirring. "He disappeared around the turn of the century after cutting a bloody swath through Europe. Why do you bring him up?" A pit formed in his stomach as Buffy took yet another step, his brilliant mind flying. What was it that Oz and Larry had told him about the fight in the Master's factory? The Slayer and a vampire had died. The Slayer and a... His eyes met deep brown ones over a blonde head and knew. "Angelus."

Instinct sent him back a step, hand reaching for one of the numerous stakes on the table. Before he could get out his intended warning to Oz and Larry, Buffy's flying tackle took him to the floor. Struggling to pull oxygen into his lungs, one thought floated slowly through his mind, Good Lord, the girl is fast. Her words began to penetrate the haze that had formed from his meeting with the hard tile as he realized that she was merely holding him in place.

"...Gypsy curse. Think about it, Giles. He's on our side. He stopped killing when he got his soul back. He's our friend. He'd never hurt any of us. Or anyone." It was a litany that kept repeating in his ear, processing slowly as tension began to leak out of him.

Brain wrestling control back from pure instinct, the Watcher nodded at the slender girl restraining him. "Sorry about that," he said as she slowly let him up. Meeting Angel's eyes again, he searched their depths for confirmation of her explanation. The vampire hadn't moved, letting Giles come to grips with the unexpected news. "My reaction was instinctive," he spoke quietly, apology inherent in his tone at the pain he found in the other's eyes.

Angel nodded slightly, a small smile flitting over his features. "It took our Giles a while to accept it, too."

He continued to stare at the vampire before him, adrenaline ebbing, leaving him lightheaded. Of all the things he was expecting, that one had never crossed his mind. Angelus... Now that was irony of the highest order. Everything he'd read about the 'Scourge of Europe' had been bloody, disturbing and downright evil. And yet the smile he gave the Slayer was loving, gentle. It was one she returned as well.

Buffy grimaced as she met Giles' gaze. "We kind of forgot to mention this all before, you know, with all the wiggy stuff going on. But the point is, Giles, he needs a place to stay. Fast."

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Once again, thank you to all who responded after reading this. Ivy was one of those people and with her insightful comments I've reworked these first two sections, hopefully making them better in the process. Part 2 is in the works, so don't give up yet. I've got a slow turn around time, but I'll try to make it worth your time and patience.

Happy reading!

Eleri