"No way, you actually hit Edward with a dodgeball?" The still bedridden Xander laughs.
"Right smack dab in the middle of his 'perfect' face," Buffy replies. "Everyone seemed really glad that I did. It was kind of odd to say the least."
"So what happened next?"
"Not much really. Edward walked up to me, I thought 'what's vampire boy staring at', Bella invited me to lunch later at the school-"
"Hold on, wait," Xander interrupts. "You thought, 'what's vampire boy staring at' with Edward standing right in front of you?"
"Yeah. Is that a problem?"
"Oh crap," Xander says.
"Xander. Explain. Now," Buffy says.
"Edward can read minds," he answers and Buffy's mouth drops.
"You're telling me this now!" She furiously whispers.
"I'm sorry, I forgot!"
"Ugh, who knows what he'll do next now?"
"Maybe nothing. He's a vegetarian vampire after all."
"Is there anything else about the Cullens I should be aware of?"
"Um, let's see. Emmett's the strong one, Jasper's the 'one drop of blood and I go ballistic' one, Rosalie's the hot one, Alice is the eternally optimistic one."
"Anything that's useful?" Buffy clarifies.
"I'm sorry, Buff."
"Don't be," Buffy sighs. "I get that it was an honest mistake."
"Maybe you can think of some misleading thoughts the next time you're around him," Xander suggests.
"Why not, that could work," Buffy replies.
They spend around another hour having a few laughs about their predicament in addition to wondering what sort of explanation the Scoobies must have given to explain their disappearance to their parents and the school.
My dear sweet mother will probably have some unpleasant words with Giles about this one. Assuming she hasn't worried herself into a coma, Buffy thinks as she heads back to Bella's truck that she let her borrow to travel around town while she was at school.
As Buffy drives off, the familiar figure of Victoria peers around the corner of the hospital and watches her leave. Part of her wants to chase after Buffy, but the other part of her knows this isn't the right moment. And as much as it bothered her, she went with the latter feeling. That's how she always lived her life as both a human and a vampire. Fight or flight and she almost always went with flight. The feeling only increased when she became a vampire. It was almost like a sixth sense guiding, nearly pulling, her away from possible threats. But she was so tempted to ignore it just this once. Just so she could find out what made this woman, this Slayer, different and what her blood tasted like.
"Allow me, Dodgeball Queen," Mike says pulling out a chair for Buffy in the school's cafeteria.
"Thanks, but really, it's not a big deal," Buffy replies.
"Oh it is," Mike states. "Edward 'Mr. Perfect' has been the center of this school's attention for far too long. It's about time he got hit from atop his pedestal."
"You sound a little jealous if you ask me," Buffy says.
"Who wouldn't be? Look at him! It's like if Marilyn Monroe and James Dean had a baby together." This gets a laugh out of the group.
"Oh, speak of the Devil," Jessica says as Edward and Emmett enter the cafeteria. Bella watches Edward from his entrance all the way to him sitting down. "Ahem," Jessica clears her throat getting Bella's attention. "What have we said about not getting lost in Edward Land?"
"That it won't get me anywhere, but hurt," Bella mutters.
"Mhm. He's not worth it. Trust me."
"Don't you think she should find out if he is or isn't for herself?" Buffy asks.
"You don't know Edward like we do, Buffy."
"We don't know him either," Angela points out. "Not really."
"That's because Mr. High and Mighty thinks he's too good for anyone," Tyler criticizes.
"Well Mr. High and Mighty is staring right at us," Angela reveals. Everyone, except Bella, looks back at him.
The Edward Cullen Stare. Ugh. Never gets old.
I'll never get a chance with Bella if she stays infatuated with Edward.
Wonder if Buffy has a boyfriend.
Should we, I don't know, wave or say something back? This is kind of awkward.
Vampire boy looks even paler than he did during gym. He doesn't get some sunlight soon, I might think he really is a vampire.
"Yo! Edward!" Emmett yells to Edward waving his hand in front of his face.
"Sorry; were you saying something," Edward apologizes looking away from the table.
"I was saying that you may want to lay off staring at that Bella girl for a while. Before she starts to get curious."
"She's a mystery to me. I can't read her like everyone else," Edward says.
"Yeah, but we don't want her asking questions. You know the Volturi will rip us to shreds if our secret is blown."
"What the Volturi doesn't know doesn't hurt us," Edward replies. "And besides, I wasn't staring at Bella this time."
"Lost interest in her already?" Emmett jokes and Edward rolls his eyes. "You able to get anything new off that Buffy girl?"
"I might've been wrong about her, but it's not conclusive. We need more information. When she leaves after lunch, I want you to tail her."
"Why do I have to tail her when you've got your stuff?"
"Because I have other things to deal with right now."
"Didn't I just tell you to lay off the Bella business? And if you're not going to, then for crying out loud, just ask her out already before I have Jasper do his thing to you, so you'll get it over with." Edward glares at him. "Sorry, but this is kind of getting annoying."
"Just do your job."
"Dude, I can't ditch class." Edward gives him another look and Emmett begins to laugh. "Yeah, I can't believe I said it either. Don't worry. I'm on it."
I should've gone to class, Emmett thinks.
Buffy decided to leave Bella's truck at school after lunch and went for a walk meaning he had to slowly and carefully tail her from a bigger distance than he would've liked. As he rounds a corner, he spots Buffy quickly turning around in his direction and steps back out of sight. He remains there and takes a few sniffs at the air to tell if Buffy is heading back in his direction. Instead, her scent is moving away; fast. He leaves his hiding place and sees Buffy sprinting towards an abandoned warehouse.
Buffy thought she was being followed the minute she left the school. At first she thought it might be Edward, but is certain she saw Emmett. She's not sure what he wants, but if it comes to violence, she doesn't want any innocent people to be around. So she breaks the lock to the warehouse's backdoor, runs inside, and stands her guard, ready for anything. But after about a minute, Emmett doesn't show.
Hm, maybe I was wrong, Buffy starts to think when her body begins to glow and in a flash of light, she disappears.
Emmett stares down from one of the upper windows at Buffy's vanishing act with a look of puzzlement and curiosity.
"Can we please take a break? We've been at this for hours," Cordelia complains.
"And we'll keep at it until we find a way to save Buffy," Giles says.
"And Xander?" Willow adds.
"What? Oh yes. Him too."
"Wish there was a way to make this easier," Cordelia sighs.
"Come on, Cordelia. It's not like they are going to magically reappear in front of us in the next ten seconds," Oz says. Upon him saying that, the first Twilight book begins to glow and then Buffy and Xander went flying out of its pages.
"I'll be honest. I didn't think that'd actually work," Oz says.
"Buffy! Xander!" Willow shouts rushing over to the two of them and putting them into an enormous hug.
"Willow, ow!" Xander cries out.
"What are you saying ow for? You look fine," Cordelia says.
"I-uh," Xander starts then looks over himself and sees no trace of the injuries he took from Victoria. He looks at Buffy and she appears perfectly fine too.
"Um, a reflex, I guess...Buffy, how are we not injured?" He asks.
"I don't know," Buffy says touching the places Victoria hurt her and not feeling anything. "There's a lot we can explain later, but let me just say, thanks for getting us out of there."
"We didn't," Cordelia reveals. "We've been trying for the past four hours with no luck."
"Four hours? We've been in there for days," Xander says and then notices that he and Buffy are dressed back in the clothes they were wearing when they were sucked into the book as well.
"Time does move differently in other dimensions," Giles explains.
"So what now? If you didn't get us out, what did?" Buffy asks.
"I'm guessing it was the spell. Maybe that's what it meant about going through so many pages a night. Once it thinks you've gone through enough, it'll spit you back out into the real world," Willow guesses.
"And exactly the way we were when when entered apparently," Buffy observes.
"So we're going to have to deal with being sucked inside that book at random periods of the day?" Xander asks.
"Pretty much."
"Have you found anything of use?" Buffy asks.
"I found one spell that should at least reduce the duration of the hex. At certain points in the book, you'll skip ahead a few chapters though it'll be like you were never gone in the eyes of the characters. Don't ask me to explain it. Magic is complicated."
"Gee Willow. You think."
"Hold on, I was just in a hospital bed. What if someone saw me vanish?" Xander asks.
"And I was being followed by one of the Cullens when I disappeared," Buffy says.
"Just what have you two been doing in there?" Cordelia asks.
"It's a long story," Buffy says.
A few nights later
Despite Willow's belief that the spell would be a nightly thing, nothing happened for the remainder of the week. Whenever Buffy and Xander weren't researching ways to break the spell, they spent the rest of their time keeping their distance from others to reduce the risk of them vanishing in front of anyone else. Buffy also made sure to keep Cordelia's birthday ax close by. After the fifth day of no vanishing acts, Buffy knew she needed to visit Angel. She found him pacing around his hiding spot and clears her throat to get his attention.
"Buffy," he says facing her.
"Hi Angel," Buffy greets. "I'm sorry I haven't been around the past few days. Some rather complicated things are going on in my life right now," she explains while handing him a paper bag that had a jar of pig's blood in it.
"It's alright," he says taking the blood. "Mind telling me what the ax is for?" He asks noticing it strapped to Buffy's back.
"Long story."
"Well, there's something I've been wanting to say to you all week actually. This is going to sound weird, but I…I want you to tell your friends about me."
"Are you serious? They'll totally flip; especially Giles."
"I know, but I'm tired of all this; tired of staying here. I'd rather your friends know that I'm back so I don't have to worry about being caught anymore."
Buffy doesn't know what to say to Angel. On one hand it would make things a whole lot easier if she didn't have to lie to her friends continuously, but she was still worried about how they would react. And what if Faith or Giles tried to kill him? Buffy just couldn't deal with this right now and was silently hoping that something would interrupt this little moment between her and Angel. Buffy's wish was granted; unfortunately it was far from what she wanted.
A figure suddenly drops from the ceiling catching our two heroes off guard. He throws out both his legs kicking both Buffy and Angel on the way down. They both went flying in opposite directions. The attacker sprints at Buffy, grabs her by the throat, and pins her up against the wall. Angel springs up and was about to rush the attacker, when he held up his hand to stop him.
"You may be fast Angel, but I doubt you'll be able to reach me in time before I crush the Slayer's pretty little neck," Spike says tightening his grip on Buffy's throat. Buffy grabs Spike's wrist, twists it forcing him to relinquish his grip, and then knocks him away from her.
"What are you doing back in Sunnydale, Spike?" Buffy asks.
"Can't a guy drop in on old friends?" Spike asks.
"We were never friends. Just temporary allies. I feel dirty just saying that. So where's Drusilla?"
"She...left me." Spike answers, trying to appear nonchalant, but Buffy can detect a trace of sadness in his voice. "Says I'm not demon enough for her after our little team up. I figure I bring her the head of another Slayer, she'll certainly change her mind."
"You can't take us both on at the same time, Spike," Angel says standing beside Buffy, which only made Spike chuckle.
"You prepared to back up those words?" He asks and then ran at the pair. However, just as he starts, Buffy's body begins to glow and then in a brilliant flash of light, the three vanished from sight.
To Be Continued…