Chapter 5

            Disclaimer: Don't own 'em…I sorta wish I did, though.

                        Sunnydale, California 1999

He dodged the incoming blow easily. This was a sad excuse for an opponent, to be sure. The vamp would be dust in seconds.

            And, true to his predictions, the vampire exploded into dust, settling in Angel's hair and on his eyelashes. He blinked, and the dust fell into his eyes. It hurt. A lot.

            He picked his stake up off the ground and brushed the ashes from his clothes and tried unsuccessfully to remove some of it from his hair. Oh well. He was gonna live forever anyway, he had plenty of time to get it out. Besides, he had bigger things on his mind. This was the fifth vamp he'd encountered (not to mention staked) in the last ten minutes or so. Where was Buffy?

            She should be out patrolling, on a night like this, with vamp activity going crazy.

            He pivoted and began walking briskly toward the library. Even if he didn't find Buffy, he could probably find some answers.

                        ***

            "Okay, now we have to find the St. John's Wort," Willow said, digging under the library desk. "I hope the janitors didn't clean it out."

            "We'd definitely heard from Rat-face if they had," Cordelia replied, using Xander's favorite nickname for Snyder. "Most of your hocus-pocus stuff looks like drugs."

            Willow wrinkled her nose. "You have a point." She fished around under the desk a bit more, then her head popped up. "A-ha!" she said triumphantly. "St. John's Wort!"

            Cordelia gave it a disapproving stare. "Which brings me to my next topic," she said. "Wart? Ewww."

            Willow gave her a stern look. "'Wort' spelled W-O-R-T, Cordy, not 'wart' spelled W-A-R-T."

            Cordelia sniffed. "It's still gross."

                        ***

                        Sunnydale, California 1954

            Buffy and Cassie both landed hard on the ground, Cassie on her side and Buffy with her chin digging into the dirt. She felt blood in her mouth as the impact made her bite her tongue. Oh, great, she thought. Just what I need.

            She pushed herself up off the ground and gave a quick look around. Cassie was struggling, but she suddenly jumped up and ran toward Buffy, knocking her opponent out of the way and staking him simultaneously. He exploded into dust. 

Cassie was even closer to Buffy now, her stake ready. She's nuts! Buffy thought, tucking herself into a ball and rolling to the ground. She's trying to kill me!

But when she looked up, she saw that Cassie had not been trying to stake her at all. She was currently fighting a vampire that had been sneaking up behind Buffy. Buffy gave a little smile. She owed Cassie one.

Cassie battled the vampire for a few more seconds and dusted him as Buffy took a quick look at the surrounding area. The vamps were gone. She and Cassie seemed to be alone.

"So how long have you known?" Cassie asked, her tone conversational.

"Huh—what?"

"That they existed?" Cassie said, gesturing to the area around her where the fight had taken place.

"Uhh—since I was fifteen," Buffy said a bit uncomfortably. "You?"

"Same here. I found out when I was called."

"Called?"

"Chosen One, and so on and so on. You too, huh?"

Buffy stood and gaped at Cassie. "You're…you're a Slayer?"

"The one and only." Cassie gave Buffy a quick glance. "I suppose." Her tone was definitely friendly now. She trusted Buffy.

"I'm going to take you to my Watcher. We can figure this out," Cassie said, grabbing Buffy by the arm and leading her toward the edge of the graveyard. "Patrol can wait. We need to get you…back to wherever it is you're supposed to be."

            ***

            Sunnydale California 1999

Angel burst into the library, glancing around as he did so. "Where's Buffy?"

"Oh, hey, it's tall, dark, brooding, and incredibly handsome," Cordelia said dryly, focused on her current task of being put on hold by the guy at the pizza place. She drummed her fingers against the countertop and wrapped her other hand up in the phone cord. "What brings you here?"

"Buffy. Or the lack thereof."

"See, that's our teensy-weensy problem," Willow said lightly, pulling a spell book closer to her and double-checking the list of ingredients. "Buffy's sorta back in time." She nodded with a satisfied look and began to arrange the spell circle. Candles, incense, wooden bowl. This spell mostly just called for the basics. "I'm going back to get her."

"You can't go alone," Angel said.

"Right, because America in the 1950's was such a war zone," Cordelia muttered. 

"Why not?" Willow asked Angel, ignoring Cordelia altogether.

"For one thing," Angel said, observing her outfit, "you'll stick out like a sore thumb."

Willow looked down at her outfit.

"For another thing, you don't know anything about that time. I think I should go with you."

"Sure I know stuff about the 1950's!" Willow protested.

"Maybe the historical stuff," Angel said, "but not the other stuff."

"Puh-lease," Cordelia sighed. "All you have to do is watch Grease. She glanced at Willow. "Tell me you've seen Grease."

"Uhhh…"

Cordelia made an aggravated sound. "Not only are you a beauty school dropout, so to speak, you've never seen the best musical of all time?"

Willow was surprised. Cordy didn't strike her as a musical fan.

"Can we please stay on task?" Giles asked. "Willow, why don't you get the Watchers' Diaries from the fifties. You can read through them and see what kind of paranormal things were going on at the time."

"Okay," Willow said, skipping off to Giles's office to retrieve the books. "Be back in a sec."

            ***

Cordelia sat thumbing through one of the Watchers' Diaries. "Ewww. This Slayer—I forget her name—she was tortured by vampires and killed." She picked up another diary and flipped through it. "Ick—this one dated her Watcher." Cordelia glanced at Giles and tried to imagine Buffy and Giles on a date. She succeeded so well, in fact, that she rubbed her eyes to try to get rid of the image. Willow squirmed uncomfortably, no doubt imagining the same thing. Giles cleared his throat. Angel looked rather disturbed.

"Err, Willow, why don't why try that spell now?" Giles said, snapping his book shut.

"Uh, okay. Angel, you stand over here by me," Willow instructed. She then picked up the book, careful to pull her sleeves over her hands to prevent being burned again. She then read:

In sands or whispers It comes and goes

Slipping away

Through the eyes of man
It can be mastered
But even the tamed lion

Is not without the wild.

Pieghi il tempo

Va Indietro

Eventi persi
Per voi da trovare

She took a deep breath, as singing was not her forte, and sang, rather off key,

Johnny Angel,

How I love you…

The picture in the book was swirling, but she wasn't being sucked in. What's going on? she thought frantically.

Angel figured it out. "It needs contact!" he said to her, grabbing her around the shoulders and touching the picture with his free hand. Willow felt the force weigh down on her, like the way you feel on a fast roller coaster that pushes you back against your seat. Then there was a pop, and then Cordy and Giles were the only ones in the library. "Wow," Cordy breathed. Then, "Oh, shoot!"

"What? What's the matter?" Giles asked, more than a bit frantic.

"That pizza guy never showed!"