AUTHOR'S NOTE Da da da da! Here's chapter four. Not much to say I don't think…

DISCLAIMER I don't own them and you all should know that!

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Chapter Four: In Which They Meet Old Friends

A very small group of surviving senior Watchers waited silently around a large table. When Quentin Travers entered the room, he gave them a smile. "Well Quentin?" one of the Watchers asked.

"Summers and the witch have agreed. We are to send them the Time Turner in Los Angeles, California in a week's time."

A sigh of relief echoed through the room. "Good," said another.

Quentin sat down, accepting the cup of tea brought by a servant. "Thank you," he said. He surveyed the other Watchers in the room. "Do not worry, my friends. The Slayer and the witch will take care of everything. Buffy's reinforced training in demon slaying will ensure her success in this mission."

"But Quentin, you forget," a Watcher called Nichols spoke up. "Her relationships with Angelus and with William the Bloody. Her friendships with the vengeance demon Anyanka and that werewolf. She has shown in the past that she prefers often to harbor demons, even help them."

Quentin chose not to tell them that Angelus and probably William the Bloody would actually be helping Buffy with her mission.

Instead, he simply waved a hand. "I assure you, she will not fail. I have her completely convinced that her stopping X5-452 is simply a matter of demon control."

"What if she feels sympathy for the transgenics? What is the Slayer joins 452 and all our work is for nothing? We cannot lose the Manticore soldiers!" Nichols pressed.

Quentin grinned coldly. "If Buffy does her job right, 452 will soon no longer be an issue."

Italy

"I'm sorry," Buffy said. "I have to go."

The Immortal sniffed dismissively. "If you feel it is your duty, then so be it. But you have never liked taking orders from the Council before, my Slayer. What makes now any different?"

Buffy didn't know what to tell him. She didn't know the answer. "There's something about this Manticore thing. Something about it just bugs me." She sighed. "I hate the Watcher's Council, but this. I never thought they could sink that low."

The Immortal looked at her with probing eyes. "How low is that?"

"They've been mixing demon and human DNA and creating new creatures. Travers said something about animal DNA too."

"Dearest Slayer, you know that all demons are mixed with humans already."

Buffy nodded. "I know. Anya explained that to me once. But to intentionally muck up a human being with demon DNA, I don't know. It just feels wrong."

The Immortal looked down at her fondly. "My dear, you are so dedicated. I admire that." He kissed her forehead. "But I won't be waiting for you when you return."

Buffy worked very hard to stop the tears from forming in her eyes. "I understand," she said at last.

"I know." The Immortal gave her a dashing smile one last time and swept from the room. Buffy was left alone, sitting on her bed.

LAX Airport

Dawn strained her neck, scanning the crowd. "Where is he?" she asked impatiently.

Buffy and Willow dragged their bags behind her. "He said he'd be here, Dawnie," Willow answered as she lugged Dawn's heavy suitcase.

"Well then where is he?"

"There!" Buffy ran through the crowd and launched herself into Xander's arms.

"Hey Buff," he said.

"Hey!" When she was done hugging him, she stepped back and looked at him. He was the same Xander, just older, and still wearing the black eye patch. "How are you doing?"

Xander shrugged. "You know."

Buffy looked at her old friend and nodded. "Yeah. I know." Anya's death had cut Xander deeply. Buffy knew what that was like. She had driven a sword through Angel's heart. She had seen Spike sacrifice himself to close the Hellmouth. She knew.

"Xander!" Willow and Dawn had reached the two. Willow hugged her oldest friend. She regretted how little she and Xander had seen each other since the destruction of Sunnydale.

"Thank you for doing this," Buffy said.

Xander threw her a lopsided smile. "No problem. Hey Dawn!"

"Hi," Dawn replied a little shyly.

Together they were able to load Dawn's things into Xander's car. But Buffy held Willow back when she went to get in the back. "No Will," she whispered. "Dawnie?"

Dawn looked confused. "Buffy, what is it?"

"Dawn, we have to leave you here. We have to go straight to Angel and take care of this mission."

Tears began to well in the girl's eyes. "Well when will you be back?"

Buffy glanced at Willow, who gave her an imperceptible shrug. "Soon," she said.

Dawn's lower lip trembled as she gave Buffy a hug. "Be careful, okay?"

Buffy nodded. "Always."

Willow hugged Dawn tight. "I love you, Dawnie," she said.

"I know."

Then it was Xander's turn to hug the girls. "Good luck," he called as they climbed into a taxi.

Willow stuck her head out the window. "Bye Xand! I love you too!"

"Are you okay?" Buffy asked once they had pulled away from LAX. "You're acting like you're never going to see them again."

"Just nervous, I guess. Time travel is dangerous. Messing with the future or the past can have horrible consequences." Willow looked nervously at her lap.

"Don't worry, Will. Everything will be fine." Buffy only wished her voice sounded more convincing.

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This chapter marks something new that I'm doing with this story. Every few chapters or so, I'm going to include a trivia question about something in the chapter that pertains to BtVS or Dark Angel history/previous episodes. Just leave a review with the answer if you think you know.

Today, the very first trivia question is:

When Buffy says, "Anya explained that to me once," in regard to demons on earth being tainted by humans, what episode is she referring to?

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And finally, review responses!

Anna I'm glad you decided to read it and, what's more, to review! Also glad you're enjoying it! I decided that having Travers as head would be better than Giles, due to the risky mission that they're sending Buffy on. Giles would never do that to her.

Aceofshamrocks Here's some more for you! I'm not THAT great at updating, but the story is finished, so it's not like I'm still working on it. It's all here, just waiting to be posted!

Mari Of course it's going to backfire! Hehe.

Dirbatua Glad you like it.

Black Rose9 Gunn actually won't be going along, but that is an interesting idea…

Slash-a-holic I assume that the Watchers Council would have Seers or something to that effect. They are the Council, after all.