Chapter Three: Finding the Truth Revised

"Then you want me to call you Buffy?" The Principal looked down at his file, checking her name.

"No, Elizabeth is fine." Buffy corrected him. She wasn't Buffy anymore. Now she was real, she didn't have a job to do. She didn't have to fight anything but bad hair days, anymore. She could just vaguely remember those days where she had to fight. It all seemed like a long horrible dream.

"Alright Elizabeth, here's your new schedule. We've had quite a few new students enrolling as of late. I imagine you'll all get a long just fine. Perhaps you'll be introduced in one of your classes? Well, off you go. Annie will show you to your homeroom." The principal handed her a piece of paper with classes, class numbers. The odd thing was that Buffy knew where every class was, she didn't need Annie's help. But how could she know these classes, when she had slipped into her comma before ever venturing into Sunny Dale High School?

"Thank you." Buffy said before she shut the door behind her. Annie was waiting, her foot propped behind her against the wall her arms crossed in front of her chest.

"Ready?" Annie asked, but she didn't wait for a reply, just looked at Buffy's class list and started walking in one direction. Buffy did notice a group of students under a tree in front of the campus and pointed them out.

"Those are the pot heads. I wouldn't hang out with them; you'll get a bad rep." Annie didn't look at the students, just kept walking with her face looking straight ahead. Buffy recognized some of the students. A girl in leather pants and a red halter top, with matching red lip-gloss and long flowing dark hair. A senior, with bleached hair and a leather jacket- Faith and Spike. But was that who they were now? Were any of Buffy's old friends the same people she had known in another world? Anya didn't know her. Maybe she had seen recognition on Xander's face, but maybe it had just been someone behind her, or a play of the light.

"You know what's weird?" Annie started, "Yesterday we had a bunch of kids start here too. Ya know?"

"Um. No, I don't know." Buffy answered.

"Well, it's a figure of speech." Annie looked at her funny. "Well there's your home class. Have fun." Annie pointed to a door on the left and then she kept walking. "Just tell the teacher your new, okay?" And then she had turned down a hallway and was gone.

Buffy opened the door to the class and stepped inside, her entrance was followed by the class going silent and the teacher halting in her lecture.

"Another new student?" The teacher asked warily. "Or, you could make my day and tell me you're here for a piece of chalk."

"I'm here for a piece of chalk?" Buffy gave a smile, and the teacher breathed a sigh of relief. "But I also think this class is on my new schedule…"

"Well, at least you tried." The teacher pointed to an empty desk in the back of the room on the opposite side of the windows.

"Is she another one from the loony bin?" A boy questioned in a whisper, a pretty loud whisper.

"Mental Hospital. I heard she was the first one to wake up; they had to run test on her or something before she could be released. After she woke up, the other four woke up. And after them, even more. Some of them weren't even there because they were mental- the new librarian was put in that hospital after a car accident put him in a comma."

Elizabeth ducked her face and concentrated on the words in her text book, allowing her hair to hide her face. Blond hair, just like Buffy's used to be. Maybe her mom would take her to get it cut and styled after school. 'The other four woke up' those words rang in her head as the teacher went over Hamlet. There were four more, which she had awoken? And then more after them? She didn't understand.

The bell rang, she didn't hear it, but she saw everyone standing from their seats and grabbing their books, walking towards the door.

"Ms. Summers?" The teacher questioned from the front of the room. "Maybe I could help find a student to tutor you if you don't understand the material. I understand it must be hard for you to come to this school in the middle of term."

"Uh, no that's okay. Actually I've already read Hamlet. But thanks." Elizabeth gave a smile and walked out of the class. The teacher's raised eyebrow and mouth opened to question or comment the last thing she saw before the door shut behind her, ready to be reopened for the next class.

She looked at her class list. She had Arithmetic, Geometry next. That was right past the library if you took the quickest rout. Elizabeth paused for a moment, the other students talking amongst themselves or goofing off before they had to run to their next class. Elizabeth decided on the quickest rout. If Giles was in the library, than he was the Librarian. There was nothing special about it. Apart that she was fearful that she may brake down in tears and hug him.

As she came up on the library, nothing was out of order. Students walked in, they walked back out. She caught a glimpse of red hair as the door started to swing close. Willow's hair. Buffy was screaming for her to go inside, to start up conversation. To see if Willow remembered her at all, just the least bit of remembrance would make Buffy feel better. Buffy was a trouble maker. Elizabeth kept walking towards her Geometry class.

"I thought for sure she would come in to see us." Willow grumbled when she was sure Buffy had gone past the Library and to her class. "Unless she doesn't remember us?"

"No. That wouldn't make much sense would it?" Xander questioned. Giles shook his head.

"I agree with Willow's theory. After the apocalypse, Buffy woke up. Her memories of us were returned to us and we, in turn awoke." Giles restated what Willow had told him upon their return to Sunny Dale High. The first thing she had done was look for Xander and give him a huge hug. Then the two of them had made their way to the Library, sure that it would be where they found Giles. They had been correct.

The three had researched what had happened and put together a thesis. Of course, it was based mostly on their old lives being real, and this life being based on memories that had been returned only after the Slayer had reawaken to come live in this dimension. All the old supernatural fun.

Their idea based on Buffy awaking and giving back those she remembered best- Willow, Xander, Giles, and Cordelia (odd but true). Those four had in turn given back their memories of the people that they knew. But only the people they knew best- Faith, Wes, Fred, Oz, and so on.

The vampires and demons had all been here long before Buffy could have returned their memories. They had their own identities; they had been different people in the old dimension. Spike, Angel, Doyle, and Anya were all different people now, they were people now. And they had been attending Sunny Dale before Buffy or any of the others had come back.

Cordelia had politely refused to join the Scooby gang again. She had made it onto the Cheerleading Squad with a story about living in New York for the past couple years. Her father was rich, but this time around she had warned him about the taxes so that she could save her money. Although even Cordelia had blanched and had to hold back threatening tears when she had seen the substitute teacher from Ireland.

And as for the previous semi-humans, they didn't know a thing about who they had once been. Annie didn't know that at one time she had loved Xander with all of her heart and had been a vengeance-demon turned mortal. Doyle didn't know he had fallen for Cordelia, and had a half demon heritage. Angel and Spike, still being mortal enemies as the head jock and punk kid, did not know that they had once held that same hatred as blood suckers and had both fallen in love with a Vampire Slayer with out a way to dig them selves back out.

So it was back to Xander, Willow, and Giles to bring Buffy back. Because even though they now lived in what seemed like a peaceful dimension, friends were not the only thing that Buffy had helped bring back. They just hadn't woken up yet.

TBC