Part 22: And That's Just the Beginning of the Story…
The sound of someone loudly clearing his throat while knocking on a wooden tabletop interrupted any further betting between witch and Slayer. The ambient noise in the room died down as the girls shushed each other and found their seats. Dawn waved at Buffy as she settled next to Kennedy, an indication that Willow could stay put.
Buffy re-focused her nervous attention to her right and fought down the irritation that it was Robin standing patiently at the head of the room while Giles continued to quietly confer with the visiting doctor. What right does he have? Giles is the Watcher, not Robin, she thought with a stab of resentment.
Really, she needed to deal with the fact that things were changing, correction, had changed. If Giles didn't have a problem with Robin taking the lead on this meeting, then she should roll with it.
Despite the fact she was convincing herself to stop mentally building a mountain out of the anthill, she still bit her tongue so hard that it hurt as Robin called the meeting to order.
"As we all know," Robin began, "our visitors claim to be humans from the future…"
Buffy sensed Willow shift uncomfortably in her seat.
"…and that they are here on an urgent mission and apparently we here in the distant past are the only people who can help them."
When you put it that way that sounds like a deep shade of impossible, Buffy thought. Maybe she was just a little too willing to take their visitors at their word. Even Catherine pointed out that she'd be more suspicious in their situation. Yeah, don't take the 'friendly advice' at face value. If these guys are feeding us a line, all that warning does is make the lies more plausible because the best lies are the ones that have a little truth mixed in for flavor.
Buffy narrowed her eyes and concentrated. Much as she may chafe at times with Robin as take-charge man, he did have a point. They all needed to pay attention and make like a Sherlock for those little things that don't add up. She noticed Catherine's expression was cemented into a detached mask. Oh, yeah. She totally picked up that Robin thinks she's pulling a three card monte.
Her attention was so fixed on Watcher woman that she jumped when the doctor began speaking. Sheesh. She was too concentrate-y on the leader that she didn't even see the other guy move to stand next to Robin. She needed to watch the tunnel vision.
"As you all know, my name's Dr. Charles Ravensgood," the man began. "You can all just call me Charlie. I'm the official spokesperson for tonight. I consulted with Giles," here the man nodded gratefully in the Watcher's direction which won him one or two points in Buffy's book, "to determine how we can best explain what we need in terms we can all understand."
A hand shot up from the crowd.
"Dawn Summers," Charlie acknowledged.
Dawn hopped to her feet so the room could hear her. "How are you going to ask for help without spilling the good stuff? About the future I mean. Because I think you're going to be giving something away that you shouldn't just by talking to us."
"Good question," Charlie nodded. "You're right. Some things are going to, ummm, get out. But we're doing our best to keep it to a minimum. Does that answer your question?"
"For now." Dawn took her seat with a thoughtful face.
"Any more questions?" Charlie asked. When he was met with a round of silence he cleared his throat and began, "As we explained, probably not coherently because everyone was a little confused, we're from 834 years in the future, we're human, and we live on colonies settled by our ancestors who were from Tar…I mean Earth. There are some similarities between our time and yours: there are multiple Slayers and there are Watchers who train them and work with them. There are other differences, but we won't get into that."
"Because you can't tell us even a single thing about the future," said an unidentified female voice from the back of the room.
"Exactly," Charlie nodded, clearly not understanding that the wit was making a weak joke. "Suffice to say one other thing is similar, Watchers and Slayers keep journals."
"Oh, man!" Buffy thought the girl who spoke was called Maria. "Now we gotta do homework on top of fighting and training? That royally sucks!"
This declaration was greeted with a round of titters and a few muttered comments that they were sure that someone was going to make them start taking Comp 101 classes so they could write perfect little diaries.
"Ladies!" Robin shouted through the noise. "Please let Charlie talk."
Buffy let out a sigh of relief as the noise died down. She was torn on the journal issue. She wasn't psyched about the idea of writing a diary just so other people could read it. On the other hand, there were times while reading the Watchers' journals that she wished she could get the Slayer's side of the story.
"Thank you," Charlie said as he cast a worried glance at his crew. They looked a little taken aback by the general outburst. Ruda's face registered confusion over the fact that these other girls weren't expected to write things down.
The doctor forged ahead. "Catherine has in her possession a journal," here the woman in question held up a leather-bound book over her head in what Buffy thought was a parody of show-and-tell, "that records time travelers visited two of your number in Moscow 2008 to ask for help. The entry lists a number of bare-bone facts about the visitors, why they were there, what they were looking for, and the end result. This one single entry has confused archivists for centuries simply because everyone knew time travel was impossible. It was assumed that the people involved were probably lied to by persons unknown."
"So how'd you figure out the real score?" Kennedy shouted her question from her seat.
"The first time someone made a Quantum Leap," Andrew answered before Charlie opened his mouth.
Willow leaned over and sing-songed softly into Buffy's ear, "Caaaaan you feeeeeel the Baaaaakula love?"
"Stop it," Buffy tittered back. "Way to ruin a perfect Lion King moment, Will. Wait. That was from the Lion King, right?"
"I, uh, ummmm, not sure what you're talking about there," Charlie said as he regarded Andrew with alarm. "We're actually the first to travel back in time."
"Anyone else smell a disaster movie in the making?" Faith asked in an undertone.
"Right there with ya," Willow agreed.
"Like the disaster movie we deal with every May isn't enough, we now get to celebrate with a whole new disaster movie every time we change seasons?" Buffy humphed. "I say we find a place where there are no seasons because I really don't want to do this again."
"Ladies," Robin's voice whip-cracked through the conversation.
Three heads turned and met Robin's glare.
Charlie cast Robin an unreadable look before continuing. "As I said, a lot of what we 'know' about the time travel is theoretical. In simplified terms, we were supposed to go back to Moscow 2008, interact with the people we needed to interact with, get an important mystical object, and get back to our own time to deal with a crisis. Now, since this is not Moscow, and since this is not 2008, you know something went wrong."
"You don't say," Jeanne piped up.
"To make this as simple as possible, when we landed wrong we still had a chance to rectify the situation provided we didn't interact with anyone or anything from this time period. Unfortunately, a vampire found us before we got our bearings…"
"That's right. The vampire started it. Tell them, doc," Ruda nodded aggressively.
"…aaaaaand Ruda beheaded it," Charlie needlessly added, although Buffy noticed he gave the Slayer an affectionate smile. "Which means we can't re-insert ourselves in this timeline and we can't leave for another six standard days because of, ummm, magic issues."
"Actually…" J'Nal began.
"Magic issues it is!" Catherine interrupted. "Works for me."
"But that's not one hundred percent…"
"J'Nal," Catheirne's voice sounded pleasant, but it had a pleading threat hidden in it, "is it basically correct? And can we make it any more clear without saying something we shouldn't?"
J'Nal's face twitched. "Magic issues. Good one. I'll go with it."
"What Charlie is trying to say is that our visitors were faced with an impossible task," Giles interrupted. "They could try to survive in a place they knew nothing about for another week and return home empty-handed, or they could ask us, or rather two of our number, for help."
"Thank you, Giles," Charlie said, grateful to be getting back on track. "We discovered two standard years ago that the questionable entry in this journal might have basis in fact when some of the events it listed came about."
He paused dramatically, expecting questions. He seemed disappointed when no one spoke up, so he dove into it. "The population of one our outer colonies seemed to simply vanish. When Central Administration sent investigators, they found that the most of the colonists were killed. The survivors…" his voice trailed off in a shudder.
Buffy saw Ruda lean into Catherine for comfort as the girl's Watcher placed an arm around her shoulder. Catherine's hold seemed at once protective and possessive as she drew the Slayer tightly to her, her hand practically forming a claw as if she were afraid Ruda would be snatched away from her by forces unknown.
That one little act was enough to convince Buffy of two things: one, their guests were telling the truth, at least as much of the truth they could tell, and two, whatever was happening in the future probably made their battle with the First look like a Kindergarten brawl.
Charlie gathered himself. "The very few survivors seemed to be under a thrall. They attacked the team of investigators. Some were killed, some came under the thrall when they were bit, one person, the Slayer on the team, escaped and managed to get a message to Central before she died from her wounds."
The temperature dropped in the room at this and Buffy realized she was hugging herself. She forced her posture to relax and her expression into neutral. How many people, she wondered, how many were killed and how many enslaved? And just how bad was it 834 years in the future that someone somewhere thought to give the impossible a try?
Bad enough. She knew that. God knows she knew that because she'd felt it herself when she was backed into a corner by the First, stressing herself into believing that she was the only one who could save the day, and feeling utterly alone and defensive when everyone but Spike began pointing out that her judgment may be the tiniest bit flawed.
The flash of insight gave her a mental jump. Maybe Robin was wearing her pair of Pradas when it came to his recent actions and attitude. After all, he also had something that no one could share: the horror of a Slayer mother being killed in a fight. She fought down the guilt over not twigging to that before and for maybe not being as understanding as she could've been when Robin tried to stake Spike. But Spike was needed, goddamn it, and her faith in Spike was not misplaced at the end of the day.
Stop it. Concentrate. No point, Buffy ordered herself as she refocused her attention on the present. She was surprised to realize that she was still enveloped in that deathly silence. Charlie looked like he was trying to find the words to say what he needed to say next. The room gave him its undivided attention.
"It happened again after that. And again. Something was taking over the outer colonies one colony at a time and there was no rhyme or reason to the targets." Charlie cleared his throat. "Thankfully, people under the thrall reverted to an almost animalistic state. They couldn't operate anything more technologically advanced than a rock, which meant they couldn't get off planet. Had that happened…" Charlie's voice trailed off as he shuddered. "The way to think of it is like a disease? Plague?" He looked at Giles who gave him an encouraging nod. "Had the people under this thrall been able to leave, they'd be able to reach other planets and…"
"Bite people like a vampire and turn them into demons like themselves?" Dawn asked as she hopped to her feet.
Charlie looked pained. "Not exactly. Central Authority, working with the Prima and Council Honoria and representatives from the Council Educationary managed to capture one of the thralls." Giles placed a water bottle in front of the doctor, who stared at it for a moment before taking it, twisting the cap off and taking a swig. "They weren't turned into demons. They're still human, no sign of a demonic presence."
Buffy sat bolt upright. Wait! Did I just hear that there are two Councils? Maybe one was to train Slayers and one was to send out field Watchers. But the way Charlie put it—one Council was totally involved and the other only sent reps to help them figure it out—told her that whatever the relationship between the two was, it wasn't that simple. She looked around the room to see if anyone noticed the slip. Everyone was too busy looking horrified; their minds stuck on the fact that it was possible to be possessed without actually being possessed.
"Oh god," someone's voice whispered.
Charlie gave J'Nal and Giles a despairing look. "The best way to explain it is, ummm, a soul sickness?"
J'Nal didn't seem entirely comfortable with the explanation and Giles's forehead was furrowed in thought.
Giles finally volunteered, "As I understand it, and please do correct me if I'm wrong, that these people under thrall are somehow being controlled. It's as if their minds and souls were, how should I put it, locked away?" He looked to J'Nal for confirmation who seemed slightly more comfortable with Giles's explanation. "Whatever is controlling the bodies is doing so as if it's a puppet master. It is believed, and once again, I do beg you to correct me if I get this incorrect, that the individual is locked inside the enslaved body and unable to regain control."
The future crew looked to J'Nal who nodded with a little relief. "Very close. Very close, especially given that some of the magical and spiritual concepts are very advanced. It's more than sufficient. A most excellent explanation, Wise Giles-rah."
Giles stepped back in surprise while a murmur circled the room. Buffy resisted the urge to smile with relief. Count on Giles to figure it out with his big brain of his, she thought, and good for him that he gets is own rah-rah section. And check it out, yet another slip of the future tongue.
"I'm sure you tried this," Willow interrupted, "but I'd feel stupid if I didn't ask. What about simply breaking the soul or mind out of its prison? Or at least giving it a chance to regain control of the body? If magic is involved, there's always a counter-spell."
"Provided you know about the original spell and that a spell is involved," J'Nal answered. "We're still not entirely sure how the thralling process works."
"But we did try as you suggested," Charlie inclined his head in Willow's direction. "And don't feel stupid for asking because it's a fair question. The fact is we, or rather, the Prima have tried spells repeatedly on the few thralls we've been able to capture alive and nothing works."
"The only people immune to the thrall are Slayers and the Prima, which is why anyone in these two classifications are killed whenever this Great Darkness descends on a planet," Catherine added. "Everyone else is fair game."
Now it was Ruda's turn to put a protective arm around Catherine's waist.
"How many people are we talking about dead and wounded?" Kennedy asked.
"Does it matter?" Tammi asked. "One town is bad enough when you know not everyone got out alive."
Buffy fought the urge to slink down into her seat. Spike, Anya, Chloe, and Amanda right off the bat counted as four. She knew Xander's parents had high-tailed it to Vegas and that Willow's parents were out of town when the end came, but Tammi was right: no telling who decided to be stupid and stick around to the bitter end.
Charlie swallowed hard. "You have to understand, most of these outer colonies were rather small. Some consisted of little more than a few settlements. On average, maybe less than 500 million people per planet affected? I would guess by the time we left, you may be talking a ten or so planets with a total population of roughly 4 billion. At a guess, 75 percent of those people are dead."
Buffy felt her stomach drop. The numbers were huge, too big for her to understand. This was tragedy in the abstract, statistics that didn't make sense because when you start running out of fingers and toes when counting the dead they become a faceless and formless crowd. If whatever was out there eating planets was taking a crack at destroying real estate? Every one of those people would remain that way.
She chanced glancing around the room. More than a few of the girls had taken on a glassy-eyed stare. She saw Dawn blink owlishly in her seat. Kennedy's eyes were narrowed as she studied Charlie. She didn't dare look at Faith, especially since she was pretty sure the other Slayer had stopped breathing. To her left she could hear Willow's breath hitching.
Oh, yeah. If anyone here knows what this really means, Willow does. She nearly wiped out the…
"E-e-e-e-e-e-e-excuse me?" Willow's voice was tremulous strand of spider's silk in the silence. "Could this be caused by, say, a really angry witch running on Hellmouth juice?"
Buffy slowly turned her head to see her friend's expression. Willow looked deathly pale, her eyes wide with a suspicious shine of unshed tears, chin wrinkling with the effort to keep her expression from collapsing in on itself.
Catherine sat up straight, watching Willow with her too guarded expression through eyelids lowered to half-mast, while Ruda, Charlie, and Tikri exchanged confused looks. Well, well, well, someone knows something about Willow, Buffy thought. She reached out and grabbed one of Willow's hands in her own, keeping her eyes focused on the Watcher Honoria.
In response, Catherine inclined her head as if recognizing Buffy's protective gesture for what it was and relaxed, eyes not leaving Willow's face.
"We also thought of that," J'Nal said as he regarded the redhead with something akin to chagrin. Catherine didn't react, although the others on her team snapped their eyes to the witch, every expression registering shock.
"However, for a single witch, or coven, to pull this off, they would have to draw on and release enormous power with no guarantee they'd survive," J'Nal continued. His shoulders hunched under the continued gaze of his teammates. "The draw and the residual aftermath would leave an energy signature. The Great Darkness comes from nowhere and leaves without a trace."
Charlie's mouth opened and closed a few times as he tore his eyes away from J'Nal. When he finally found his voice, he said, "Think of it as null space. There's no energy, mystical or scientific, expelled or left behind."
"So you have no clues," Kennedy said from her seat, eyes still narrowed as she studied the guests.
Buffy had a sneaking suspicion that Kennedy was joining Robin on the "they're lying" side of the argument. It was hard to tell where everyone else fell. At a guess, she'd peg Willow as believing it and Giles seemed to be willing to give it a fair hearing. As for her? She had no idea what she should think. Saving one planet was hard enough, but more than one located god knows where? When there's already ten destroyed? What could she possibly do to stop it?
The bigger question is do I not want to believe it because I don't think I can do anything about it? Score one for the newish, slightly usedish Mature Buffy.
"Here's what we do know for fact: one moment everything is normal. Chatter traffic from the colony is flowing on all channels. Then everything cuts off, like someone throwing a switch, and the planet literally 'goes dark,'" Charlie explained. "There are no radiation signatures, no echoes of any radio waves, just," here he snapped his fingers, "nothing. And there are no survivors capable of communicating what happened."
"People must be panicking." Dawn was on her feet again. "You probably have a lot of people fleeing for what they think are safer planets or something because there's no way you're keeping this a secret. I bet you've got a huge refugee problem and between that and the panic that's got to be causing civil unrest."
Charlie sputtered a bit before admitting, "That's a good guess. How…"
"I read the newspaper and it's kind of a pattern here on earth," Dawn pointed out. "Oh. And if this doesn't make me sound too much like a geek, repeated Babylon 5 viewings with Xander."
"Dawn and Andrew and Xander doing a threesome in a tree," Faith quietly singsonged.
Buffy snapped off her sharp comment before it reached her mouth. Faith's face was drawn and the patented amusement with everything not Cool Faith was missing from her eyes. She was half-tempted to ask the other Slayer if she'd been taking Bad Jokes as a Way of Dealing lessons from certain absent persons.
"In either case, this part we're all," here he indicated his group with a sweep of his arm, "taking on faith: the questionable entry in the journal Catherine showed you. When we started desperately searching the archives to see if this had ever happened anywhere before, this journal and its puzzling entry kept coming to researchers' attention because it said these suspicious visitors claimed to face a similar problem. Needless to say, the Haa…noria founding families were consulted extensively to find any supporting evidence that might not have made it into the official record."
"Unfortunately, we—I mean the Council families—didn't have much more than what was in the record," Catherine added quickly.
Buffy couldn't help rolling her eyes. The Slayer line may have opened up, but count on the Watchers to hold on to their place with a death grip. They were still apparently born to play the part and no Slayer's Scythe was ever going to change that it seemed. Even though finding the surviving Watchers was a distant secondary priority, this little slip of Catherine's tongue was enough to make her want to beg Giles to drop the idea and hand the job to people who actually did something to earn it.
"The short story is this," Charlie began, "According to this journal entry, we," he waved at his group, "went back in time to Moscow 2008 and met up with two members of this group. We explained about the Great Darkness and that it had never happened in human history before. We then told them that according to this entry there was only one thing that could save us: the Grail."
"Just like Camelot!" Andrew shouted.
"The comparisons to the ancient mythology of King Arthur have not gone unremarked," J'Nal said.
"Nice to know we've got something in common," Willow muttered.
"Since we can't actually show you the contents of the journal, mostly because there is information in it that may pollute the timeline even more, I can give you the highlights of what it says," Charlie began. "The first item we have to find is the Arrow That Points the Way. This is key because its sole purpose is to lead us to the Grail."
"What is it? Where can we find it?" Buffy asked.
Charlie shifted. "We believe it is a mystical weapon or compass that changes color and makes a screaming noise when approaching the Grail."
"Don't you know?" Willow asked. "What does your journal say about it?"
"That it's yellow," Catherine answered. "And it's located here in Cleveland."
Murmurs of surprise followed this revelation.
"Where?" Robin asked.
"We don't know," Catherine admitted. "Just that it's somewhere in this metrolocale."
So they have to find an arrow somewhere in Cleveland, a city that they were all still learning to navigate beyond knowing the shortest routes between the brownstone and the Flats, the Warehouse District, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the mall in Tower City Center, and all the cemeteries. Even better, no one knows what this arrow actually looks like—beyond the fact that it's yellow and screams—or how it actually works.
Piece. Of. Cake.
Riiiiiiight.
And her name is Lola and she's really a showgirl at the Copa.
"The real problem, as I understand it from Giles," here Charlie gave Giles a despairing look, "is the Grail's location."
"Back up," Kennedy ordered from her seat. "Tell us more about this Grail."
"According to our journal, the Grail can be used as a focus to reverse the effects of the thrall and gives us a chance of fighting back against the Great Darkness," J'Nal answered.
"We have a sketchy description of what it looks like, but we need to find the Arrow first before we get into it," Charlie added.
"If this thing is powerful enough to do something about this Great Darkness of yours, why should we give it to you?" Kennedy asked. "Sounds like it's a trinket for massive mojo and you're basically asking us to believe that we don't need it so we should be handing it to you because you claim you need it more."
Robin gave Kennedy the kind of smile a teacher reserves for a class pet.
Buffy glanced at Willow and noticed her friend frowning at her girlfriend. Oh, yeah. What I wouldn't give to be a fly on the wall tonight when the two of them start talking alone. Then again: tongue piercing, so maybe not.
"All the information we gave you is all the information we have," Charlie explained. "The journal…"
"Which you can't show us," Kennedy interrupted.
"But…" Charlie began.
"You can't blame us for being suspicious," Robin joined in.
"No, we really can't," Catherine agreed. The look on her face said it all: she really hated the fact that she had to give Robin anything resembling credit for brains. "As I said to Buffy earlier, we'd certainly be suspicious in your place."
"Is your agreement supposed to win us over?" Robin asked.
Catherine got to her feet, but instead of addressing Robin directly, she turned her face to the crowd of Slayers as if they were the only jury that mattered. "We are asking a lot from you, we know that. We're asking you to take a leap of faith, the kind of leap that requires you to trust strangers with outlandish stories who will never ever be able to offer proof that your faith is justified. We're asking you to help us in a scheme that even we are not entirely sure will work. If we were in your shoes, I guarantee you that we'd not only be asking the same questions, but would be testing everything that it would be in our power to test before we'd even let us make our case.
"But here's the point: we're mere mortals," she spread her arms slightly, her hands palm up in supplication, "and we don't have much to offer. We are weak and we are desperate. The only thing we have you: your kindness, your strength, and your bravery." Her eyes swept the room, including everyone in the glance. "You, all of you, are better than our suspicious mortal selves. You are what we aspire to. You who have fought on faith and hope for years, you who continue to fight in the belief that tomorrow will be better, upon you we build our hope. We believe—no—we know that we will succeed if you trust us enough to help us."
She looked down. "You're questioning us, that's smart. You're looking for holes in our story that would paint us as liars. That's smart, too. I understand if you don't believe in us, I wouldn't believe in us either. But do know this much: we believe in you."
Years later Buffy would admit that the most awe-inspiring thing she'd ever seen were the looks on the faces of every Slayer in the house in the ringing silence that followed. Spines had straightened, shoulders had squared, and every girl—whether they were in Sunnydale at the end or not—looked like they were seriously considering Catherine's petition as if they were the only ones who could decide yay or nay.
And even after Buffy knew everything she was ever going to know about this singular event, she'd point to this one moment as the moment where everything changed. Well, maybe not changed, but set to rights.
Maybe some things really are destined after all.
One by one, the girls got to their feet until most of the room was standing. Buffy realized she had joined them somewhere in there and that Faith was standing next to her. The quarter of the Slayers still sitting, which included Kennedy and Maria, looked distinctly unhappy once the movement stopped and pin-drop silence was regained.
Giles had an odd smile on his face as he scanned the room. Dawn remained seated as she looked around her in wonder. Robin seemed somewhat taken aback, but didn't speak. Willow also stayed in her seat with only a quiet "wow" giving away her thoughts. It made sense in a way: this moment wasn't for them.
Catherine's group looked tense.
"The ayes have it," Buffy said. God knows how she knew, she just knew.
"Yup, looks like you got yourself an army," Faith agreed. She turned to Catherine who sagged in relief. "But we're gonna be checking you along the way to keep you honest."
"Willow will help you find the arrow because she's research girl," Buffy said. "Throw Xander in with because he probably knows the city better than any of us."
"Once we find this arrow, we regroup and talk some more," Faith added.
"Not to break the mood here on anything," Dawn said as she remained seated. "But where is this grail? You said its location is a problem."
Charlie blinked at the assemblage as the girls began slowly taking their seats. "Oh. Yes. The Grail. It's in Moscow."
The repeated disbelieving question "Moscow?" spun around the room.
"But don't worry!" Charlie held up his hands. "Not all of you are required to go. In fact, because we're desperately, and I do mean desperately, trying to keep the timeline as unpolluted as possible, we can only take two of you."
Robin crossed his arms and casually asked, "Which two?"
Now it was Ruda's turn to stand up straight radiating pride. Catherine grinned and put a hand on the girl's shoulder.
"The first person is Faith Lanoire," Charlie said.
To her eternal shame, Buffy felt a flood of warm relief at that. This time the burden wasn't on her shoulders. She dared to turn her head to look at Faith.
The other senior Slayer had frozen, one leg thrown over the arm of her chair, face pale with shock, body language locked in the classic fight-and-fight-some-more muscle freeze.
Oh, yeah. There wasn't enough money in the universe to convince Buffy that she should be wearing Faith's Baby Docs. This tall order was just a little too tall for her taste and given that she dealt with the last eight or nine apocalypses, Faith could take this one and run with it in good health as far as Buffy was concerned.
Robin gave Faith an encouraging smile, uncrossed his arms, stood up straight and asked a question where the answer was pretty self-evident. "Who's the other person?"
Catherine's grin changed to what could only be described as a sardonic smile as Charlie answered, "The other person is Alexander LaVelle Harris."
"LaVelle?" Willow asked.
Buffy burst into nervous hysterical laughter at this, completely missing the poisonous looks half the younger Slayers glared at her.
The truly sad thing was that Buffy wasn't laughing because Xander was being asked to save a whole lot of planets and possibly the entire human race. It was the fact that he was being asked to do it with Faith, of all people, in a convoluted buddy-cop-movie kind of way.
And the other reason? She was snorting like a water buffalo in heat because the look on Robin's face was simply priceless.
TBC…