Summary: Ten Years Gone...

Disclaimer: I don't own anything from the Buffyverse except what I have created in original characters.

Feedback: Rean of the Coilm

Pre-fic Comments:

Anyone ever get the urge to kill someone for absolutely no reason?

My descriptions of the trip probably won't be terribly accurate. If anyone feels like it, they can write some wild porno scenes of Faith, Buffy, and Willow keeping themselves warm on the ice.

There's a fair amount of explanation/exposition in this.

* * *

"You're a wreck no matter what
You come and see that she's the perfect shot
You pull the strings and make her puppet fly
Your fate can make her cry
And it's all for you."

-'Pull The Strings', The Feelers

* * *

Xander blinked. "You work fast, G-man."

Giles smiled. "Y-yes, well, this is important to me. An antediluvian city!"

They were in Christchurch, New Zealand, with Faith, Buffy and Willow right behind them as well as half a dozen students.

"Mr Harris, er, Xander," one of the Kiwi students began, "when are you gonna tell us about this city?"

"Once we're underway," Giles said. "The, um, equipment has been loaded onto the ship and all that remains is to board."

"Giles, have you brought enough warm clothes?," Willow asked.

Giles raised his walking stick threateningly. "/Yes/, mother."

"Chill, Red," Faith said.

"Subzero, Faith," Xander said, grinning madly.

* * *

Once they'd gotten past a certain latitude, ice had started to form on the ship. Everyone below the age of forty five were conscripted to ice chipping duty, so that the ship wouldn't get top heavy. Giles had appointed himself supervisor, bundled up in a blanket or three and sitting in a chair that had been brought out.

"So what you're after is the Temple in the middle of this city?," a student, Jens, asked. He was from a small NZ town called 'Dannevirke.' "Stupid ice."

"That, and the Library it contains," Xander said. "According to what we have, religion, learning, and magic were tied together. Man, I want me some icecream."

Faith threw a handful of ice chips at the one eyed scholar before giving up. Too cold.

"We're after their history books, then?," Keith asked. He was one of Giles' students.

"We can still learn a lot if they didn't record any history," Giles said.

"Giles, what was that Gem thingy you mentioned back at your house?," Buffy asked. "Is it one of those Armageddon things?"

"Uh, no," the Watcher replied "To understand it, you have to understand the philosophy towards species at the time."

"Species? They had little green men?," Jens asked.

"No," Xander answered. "There was Draconis Nematoda, Draconis Biped, the Priests, the Wizards, and the Nothings. Did I miss any, Giles?"

"The Mazoku," Giles finished. "The Gem would uh, remove hybrids from the population by causing the major inheritance from the parents to become the /only/ inheritance so, uh, someone a quarter Priest and three quarters Wizard would be, uh, all Wizard after exposure."

"What's with this quarter Priest shit?," Faith asked. "It's a job, no more, no less."

"Not quite," Xander said. "The Priesthood was hereditary, kinda like the Levites in Jewish society."

"Heavily structured, then?," Keith asked.

"Any demons or vamps?," Buffy asked, priorities always in order.

"That was uh, the function of the group called the Adamantine Hammer," Giles said. "Formed from the d-dragon people. We don't know much about them past what is recorded."

"Why're you so quiet, Red?," Faith asked. "You should be right into this history shit."

Willow looked up from the rail she was de-icing. "I'm thinking."

* * *

After half a week, they had gotten to where they split up with the main expedition. It took them about a weeks travel to get to the recorded location of the lost city.

"Well, shit," Faith said. "No front door?"

Bill, the third of Xander's students, looked over to the group from where he was poking at some snow. "I think there's some kind of door here."

They all obediantly trooped over to look at Bill's door. It was a slate roof, obviously to a tower or something similar.

"That's one very unopening door," Xander dryly observed. "Time for some renovating."

After the students had cleared more snow under Xander's direction, they carefully pulled the slate tiles off. Surprisingly, the tiles resembled those used in old rural settings.

"Okay," Xander said. "Hand me a torch, Jens."

The one eyed scholar shone the light around the room they had unearthed. It had a telescope at one of the unopened windows, forever looking at a vista of compressed snow. A floor to ceiling bookcase curved around a quarter of the wall space. The only other feature of the room was a staircase going to a lower level.

"This is soooo cool," Xander said, grinning like mad.

* * *

Post-fic comments:

I hope the respondants to part3 don't mind that I used their first names.