"Got a cause of death on this one?"

"Beats me. Animal attack?"

"Really? I mean, c'mon. Look, you see any bite marks? Anyplace he got clawed?"

"No, but he's pretty torn up."

"Not much blood for an animal attack…"

"Okay, okay, I was just spitballing. Jeez. What's your best guess, smartass?"

"Let's see… the victim shows evidence of some sort of attack, based on the disheveled state of the clothes and the condition of the body."

"Disheveled? Somebody's one semester of college is showing up."

"Screw you. Victim appears to have suffered substantial blood loss, but there is no obvious evidence of any sort of wound."

"What about that?"

"What? That? That's not a wound, that's, like, a hickey or something. Hey, what are you doing?"

"Shut up, I'm just… under her sleeve… whoa, look at that. There's a line of those things."

"Yeah. Hey, look how it's crusted. You know what that looks like? Freezer burn."

"What?"

"No, I'm serious. Like when you leave ice cream in the freezer too long. That's what it looks like."

"Okay, so is that how the vic lost so much blood?"

"I don't- Hey, doc, glad you're finally here."

"Be glad I'm here at all. This town's gone crazy. This is my third call tonight. What have we got?"

"Vic is male, twenty-five to fifty-"

"Wide spread."

"Kinda hard to tell with him messed up like that."

"Yeah, we were wondering how he lost so much blood. We can't find any real wounds, just those… freezer burn looking things."

"Hmmm. They do look like some sort of burn. Here, just a minute, let me get a syringe. Get photos of the arm right here, next to the marks. I'm documenting what I'm doing, that's what. Got it? Okay. Now, let's see… Oh."

"What?"

"See the syringe? That's wrong, the color, the consistency…"

"What are you saying, doc?"

"I can't give you any definitive conclusions until after the autopsy, but it appears that while the victim has suffered significant loss of bodily fluids, he did not exactly lose blood."

"Huh?"

"Something took most of the water from his body."

She was going down for the third time. She was aware that she had tried to swim too far, and her leaden limbs dragged her down. A muffled sound reached her ears. She realized someone on shore was calling her, beckoning her to find the strength to break the surface. The pounding of the surf grew louder as her final strokes…

The Slayer groaned and dug her way out of the tangle of sheets and blankets in which she was entombed. Blinking her bleary eyes, she saw her mother leaning into the room. Buffy shook her head, trying to separate whatever her mother was saying from the relentless hiss and boom of the neverending rain. The room was iron-gray in what should have been the morning light.

Buffy squinted, bringing Joyce into some kind of focus. Eventually her mom's mouth-motions resolved into meaning and Buffy was able to understand.

"Willow's on the phone. Sorry to wake you, but she seems excited."

"Uh, okay, just…" Buffy looked around, trying to figure out how to escape the prison of her bedclothes. She battered her way past the comforter and placed her feet on the ground, which provoked a noise of disgust as she jerked her right foot into the air and hopped in place.

"What-" Joyce began. "What is on your foot?"

Buffy hobbled past her mother trying to put as little weight as possible on the mud-caked foot. "Long story. Late night. Tired. Toweled off, must've missed-" She froze. "We probably should clean out those boots." She limped to the bathroom. "Tell Will I'll be there in a minute. I gotta wash my foot."

"What? No, 'wash my foot' isn't a euphemism for anything. I literally had to wash my foot." Buffy caught her mother's attention and mimed drinking. Joyce nodded, grabbed a cup, and headed to the coffee pot. "What- I- Will, slow down. My brain is still three lengths behind my body. I- Thanks." Buffy accepted a cup of coffee from her mom, blew on it, then took a sip.

"Okay. Start over. What- No, I-" The Slayer listened for a time, using the interval to gulp more coffee. "Okay, uh, so, last night, I… saw something weird."

"No, not ordinary weird. Special weird. Weird weird. Cats and dogs living together weird." Another hit of coffee. "Sure. No, I need to talk to Giles about it, but I thought I'd just… Okay, just a sec." Buffy raised her eyebrows at her mother. Joyce nodded. "Yeah, it's okay, but how… Fifteen minutes. Um, make it thirty. It's gonna take a while. See ya." The Slayer hung up the phone, drained the cup, and placed it on the counter. "Oz and Willow are going to swing by and we're going to see Giles."

"I sort of figured that out," Joyce said, a small smile on her lips. "Don't you think you should call him, so he knows you're coming?"

"Good idea." Buffy picked up the phone and punched in digits. She waited, twisting a strand of hair around her finger, then hung up the phone and frowned. "He's not home."

"Well," Joyce said, "maybe he decided to do something with his unexpected day off."

"No, not Giles." Buffy shook her head. "If he did anything spontaneously, he'd combust." She dialed the phone again. "Giles," she said, "you know we're out of school today. Listen, Will and I need to talk to you. We can be at the school in… forty minutes? Great. See you then." She hung up the phone. "Okay, now to shower." She rolled her eyes toward the rain-washed windows. "Although it's wasted effort in this."

"Bye, mom." Buffy dropped the curtain and shot out the door as Oz's van pulled to the curb. Her sneakers were soaked through by the time she reached the bottom of the steps. She hurried through the downpour, the splash from her steps saturating her jeans to the knee. Willow threw open the side door as the Slayer launched herself at the vehicle. She landed on the seat and slid across, fetching up against the far side of the vehicle. The solid thump caused the VW to rock slightly on its springs.

"Why are you wearing those shoes?" Willow pointed at Buffy's soggy shoes. "Where are your boots?"

Buffy blew out a breath and shook her arms, trying to shed water. "I think the boots may have to be burned." She stared out the window at the water surging between curbs and splattering on lawns. "I guess the song was right. A hard rain is a-gonna fall."

"Not even Eddie Rabbitt could love this rainy night," Oz dead-panned

"Huh?" Buffy frowned in puzzlement.

"Sorry," Oz said as he put the van in gear. "One notch too far on the esoterica scale."

"Oh, I've got one. Maybe you should just blame it on the rain." Willow giggled.

Buffy rolled her eyes. "That was weak."

"I get that you're off your game. It's early, an early morning rain." Oz looked at her in the rear-view mirror.

"Now you're just trying to be lame."

"What's the matter, Buffy? You can't stand the rain?" Willow tried to keep a poker face.

"Missy Elliott or Ann Peebles?" Oz glanced at Willow.

"Either one."

"Okay." Buffy glanced back and forth between her friends. "Why does it always rain on me?"

Oz nodded. "Nice."

The Slayer flopped back in the seat. "Care to share why you two made with the little Senor Wences routine?"

Willow half-turned to face her friend. "I have something really neat to tell you. I-" The van jolted and slid a little to the left.

"Sorry," Oz said, struggling with the wheel. "It's actually getting hard to drive. Just too much water." They were quiet for a moment, then Willow continued.

"Remember how I said the rain was wigging me? And how I had those spells last fall?"

"Yeahhhhhh." Buffy drew the word out.

"Well, I've been doing some experimenting, trying to figure out what's wrong, and I think I may be figuring it out."

"Well, that's good." Buffy leaned forward and grimaced as water slid down her neck. "What gives?"

Willow took a deep breath. "It's hard to describe, but it's like there's another world beside ours."

Buffy frowned. "We knew that. Demons come from another dimension."

"Not like that." Willow gazed into space and waved her hands. "It's not like another world another world."

"Well, that explains it."

"Buffy, this is hard. This is like another dimension right next to ours, almost like a double-exposed photograph, or a Venn diagram with a lot of overlap." She noticed the Slayer's puzzled expression. "You know, the intersecting circles?"

"Oh, those! The things we use in English to show similarities and differences."

"Yeah, those. Anyway, This seems like it's our world, only really, really out of focus."

"Well, what can you do there?"

Willow shrugged. "So far, nothing. I don't think it likes things that don't belong there. I got kicked out the first couple of times. But I'm starting to figure out how it works, at least a little bit."

Buffy looked at Oz. "Did you know about this?"

Oz glanced at her in the mirror. "Oh yeah. We don't keep secrets. Although," he amended, "I did just find out about it, like, ten minutes before you did."

WIllow leaned over the seat. "So, do you have major spillage?"

"I don't know. I patrolled last night, finally saw some vamps."

"Good." Willow made an 'oops' face. "Or bad. Good or bad, whichever."

"They were acting of the weird. I fell down, twice, and was still able to dust all four of them. Or mud them."

"Is the rain messing them up?"

Buffy shrugged. "I think so, maybe. Something was fogging their windshield, but there was something else."

Willow's eyes widened in concern. "What kind of something else?"

"Something that gave me a full-body wiggins. There were these… things in the street.. They were definitely new pieces on the game board."

"What were they?"

"I don't know. They were… blobby, and squirmy-"

"Were they worms?" Willow's voice rose in excitement. "Giant worms?"

"It's more than slightly concerning that you're so excited about this. I don't think they were worms. They didn't have those, like, ring thingies that worms have."

"Annuli. They're called annuli."

"Thanks, Will, I knew I could count on you." Buffy bit her lip. "They were sort of blobs, and they were white, but not a real white. They were sort of cloudy-"

"Milky?"

"Yes!" Buffy snapped her fingers and pointed at her friend. "Milky. That's the right word. Anyway, they looked kind of like big sacs of milk just oozing around the street until they vanished into the storm gutters." She looked into Willow's eyes. "One of them kind of tried to eat a tree, I think, but it wasn't anything they did. When I saw them I just felt… empty, hollow. It was weird."

"Could they have something to do with the body Sunnydale PD found this morning?" Oz asked as he focused on keeping the van pointed into the current.

"What? A body?" Buffy leaned forward between the front seats. "How did you hear that?"

Oz shrugged. "I told you, I have sources."

Buffy squinted at him. "Who are these sources?"

Oz hesitated, then: "My mom has a police scanner set up in the family room."

Willow grinned. "Spyin' on five-oh."

Buffy shook her head. "Don't do that. Don't ever do that again."

"Why not?" Willow demanded. "I'm hip with the lingo."

The van rocked as Oz turned the wheel. The girls looked out the windows to see a rippling version of the school. Oz put the van in park and turned off the key. "We're here," he announced.

"Should we be concerned about our school's security?" Willow asked as they made their way down the hall toward the library. "I mean, if you think about it, we have a pretty easy time getting in here on nights and weekends."

"Well, in fairness, I did just kind of slayerize the lock. I don't think your average Sunnydale low-life looking for fenceables can do that."

Willow nodded. "True."

The trio pushed through the double doors. "Giles!" Buffy shouted. There was a muffled thump from the office, followed by the appearance of a disheveled librarian in the entry. His tie was askew, his sleeves rolled to different lengths, and the back of his shirt was untucked.

"How did you get into the building?" he said.

"We came through the door," Buffy said, gesturing back toward the hallway.

"Yeah," said Willow, "just walked right in."

Oz stuck his hands in his pockets and looked up at a corner of the room. The Watcher's eyes narrowed.

"Giles, did you spend the night here?" Buffy asked. "You're looking extra-rumpled."

The librarian shook his head as he pushed down the cuffs of his shirt. "We have to go. Time is of the essence." He ducked back into the office and returned, shoving his arms into his tweed coat. He grabbed a waxed-cotton jacket from the rack inside the door.

"Dramatic much?" The Slayer arched her eyebrows."

"Not really," he replied. "We have a situation involving Cordelia."

"Don't we always?" Willow muttered.

Giles pushed past them and through the door, his stride jerky. The three students exchanged looks and hurried to catch up to the librarian. He hit the door, paused, then turned to them.

"I, um, I think… I think it best if you three follow me in Oz's van. Is that acceptable?" He looked at Oz, who shrugged.

"Sure."

"All right. Stay-"

"Giles," Buffy interrupted. "Follow you where?"

The Watcher stopped, blinked, and shook his head. "I'm dreadfully sorry. You were right earlier. I did not get much sleep last night." He took a deep breath and exhaled forcefully.

"Okay," Buffy said. "Speak slow. Use simple words. Let's avoid the cliche where one character withholds information with the other characters for no good reason."

"I hate that," Oz said.

"I can't really tell you what is happening because I… I don't really know" Giles glanced out the door. The rain fell; the school's lawn had turned into a small lake with green grass breaking through the water's surface.

"There now," said the Slayer. "Wasn't that easy- what do you mean, you don't know what's happening? Giles, your job is to know what's happening. It's why you keep all those old books."

"I haven't been able to find anything in the books. I must go. You are under no obligation to come with me, but if you wish, I'm leaving now." The Watcher opened his umbrella and pushed through the door.

The three students watched, open-mouthed, as he hurried to his car. As he struggled to close his umbrella, Oz spoke.

"I'll just say, after a statement that cryptic, I feel like I gotta see what's going on."

"Agreed." Willow nodded, her mouth quirked to the side.

"Double agreed," Buffy said.

Oz dug the van's keys out of his pocket. "Then let's saddle up."

Giles had already pulled out of the parking lot by the time they piled into the van and his car's silver-gray exterior blended into the sheets of rain, but the utter lack of traffic on the streets of Sunnydale let them follow him fairly easily.

"Where are we going?" Willow asked.

"No idea," Buffy said as she rubbed condensation from the window and looked out. "The hospital's not out this way."

"Hang on." The van slid to the side for a sickening moment, then propelled forward.

"What was that?" Buffy clutched the back of Willow's seat.

"Hydroplaned." Oz glanced at the rear-view mirror. "So much water in the street we lost contact with the pavement. We were floating for a second."

"My breakfast was floating for a second." Buffy took a deep breath.

"He's turning right." Willow pointed.

"Thanks." Oz pumped the brakes carefully. The van slewed back and forth, but its speed slowly decreased. As he turned the wheel they could feel the water pushing the van farther to the right. Oz got it straightened out just before they hit a curb.

"I hope we get wherever we're going soon." Willow was slightly green.

The brake lights of GIles's Citroen lit up as he pulled into the driveway of a small shingle-sided house. As the librarian's umbrella exited the car, followed by the man, Oz cautiously made the same turn, stopping beside and slightly behind the car. They piled out and headed at a run toward the porch.

"Okay Giles," Willow said as they huddled under the eaves, grateful for the meager protection, "where are we and why?"

Before GIles could answer, the door opened and the imposing figure of Matti Hollis filled the doorway. She glanced at Giles, then saw the students. Buffy and Willow were open-mouthed and goggle-eyed; Oz had folded his arms over his chest, a sure sign of discombobulation."

Matti looked back at Giles. "I see you brought the Musketeers."