Chapter Ten

"No, no, no, no, NO!" Anya said, looking at Dawn, Giles, Willow, Tara and Xander. "I am NOT going down THERE looking for D'Hoffryn! If he doesn't want to be found, he won't be."

"But you have to," Willow said. "We've gone looking for him three times now, and even his demon minions won't say anything."

"I'm sorry, but no. I have no powers. I could be killed. I could be maimed. Or worse! And no, we are not going together. Even your powers can't stand up to D'Hoffryn's. Why can't you people understand – D'Hoffryn is not very happy with me, and I'd just as soon stay as far away from him as possible."

"So, we're just supposed to let Buffy rot away and die 2000 years ago?" Dawn asked.

"Well, she'll die first, then rot away."

"That's not even funny. We HAVE to get her back!"

"I agree with Dawn," Giles said. "We have to do something, Anya. And as much as I hate to admit it, right now you look to be our only hope."

"Well, looks can be deceiving. I am no one's hope."

"Come on, Sweetie…." Xander started to say.

"NO! I said no and I meant no. And no amount of pleading or begging or sweet talk is going to change my mind. Look, I want Buffy back as much as the rest of you do, kind of, but I'm not going to risk my life on a fool's errand. You'll just have to find another way."

"Any suggestions?" Dawn asked. "You're the so-called expert on temporary folds."

"Temporal – temporal folds."

"Whatever. You still claim to be the specialist in time traveling spells."

"I never said any such a thing. I said D'Hoffryn knew a spell -- 'A' spell. And it worked, mostly. What about you, Giles? You have all those books hidden away. Don't they have something in them? Something that's actually USEFUL?"

Before Giles could answer, the door to the shop opened, ringing the bell..

"You all will have to excuse me," Anya told them. "We have a paying customer I need to see to."

While Anya was tending to the customer, Dawn asked Willow, "Isn't there ANYTHING you can do? As powerful as you are, and all the spells you know and you can't bring Buffy back?"

She sadly shook her head. "I wish I could. But some things are even beyond my capabilities."

"Well, that's great! That's just freakin' great!"

"Do you guys always walk? Or is it because I'm along and there isn't room for three on the horse?"

"Mostly we walk," Gabrielle answered. "I don't especially like being way up there. I'm not much for heights. But if it's an emergency and we have to get to, or away from, some place in a hurry, then I'll ride behind Xena."

While they were walking, Buffy and Gabrielle were ahead of Xena and Argo. Xena was carefully listening to their conversation. She wanted to know as much about Buffy as she could, and by letting her talk, and asking questions, she would eventually figure out why she was here, and what she REALLY wanted.

"So, tell me more about the future. You mentioned they still made war, but what about the arts? You know, music, poetry, the theater."

"We still have those things. Well, maybe not poetry so much. But there are book stores all over the place."

"Books?"

"They're like your pieces of parchment, but they're bound together along one side so you can turn the pages while you read."

"That's a clever idea," Gabrielle said, then turned to look at Xena. "Don't you think so, Xena?"

"Wonderful."

"I sense some hostility from Xena. I guess she still doesn't trust me, or want me here."

"It sometimes takes a while. I think she's just unsure about this Slayer thing. Do you really think she might be one?"

"That's why I came here, to find out. But also to find out about you."

"What about me?"

"Well, all Slayers have Watchers, and as far as we knew, they were always men. But since we know nothing about Slayers and Watchers from this time period, we thought that you might be Xena's Watcher."

"So what do these Watchers do, just watch?"

"They locate the Slayers when they're called, and then guide them and train them."

"HAH!" Xena laughed out loud. "Gabrielle couldn't train a dog!"

Gabrielle looked back at Xena, a wounded look on her face, but didn't say anything.

Sensing Gabrielle's hurt, Buffy said, "But even if you aren't a Watcher, your scrolls have provided us with a valuable account of a piece of history we knew nothing about."

Gabrielle gave Buffy a small, appreciative smile.

"So what about those weapons you talked about?" Xena asked. "Pretty lethal?"

"Unfortunately. The most common weapon shoots out slugs of metal, bullets, about the size of the end of your finger. And it can keep shooting them as fast or faster than you can blink until you run out. Then you reload and start shooting again."

"Sounds pretty awful," Gabrielle observed.

"What's the range of these 'bullets'?"

"I don't know exactly, but I would guess they can travel at least twice as far as arrows, and maybe five to ten times faster. We also have airplanes that fly through the air and drop bombs so powerful that each one can destroy huge chunks of a city."

"They drop these on innocent men, women and children?" Gabrielle was horrified.

"When it comes to making war, no one has any conscience, and no one is safe."

"And they still make war with horrific weapons like that?" Gabrielle was still having trouble comprehending. "What could they possibly fight about?"

"Probably the same things you do here – land, natural resources, religion, insane leaders who want to rule the world."

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