Spike lay sprawled in the darkest corner, shirt off and crumpled beneath his head in a makeshift pillow. A small animal carcass lay near the entrance; obviously a failed attempt to throw it out of the cave completely, and Spike hadn't dared to come near the sun to kick it the rest of the way out.
"Come on in, pet. Make yourself at home." The vampire spoke without opening his eyes.
Buffy smiled slightly. "I didn't know if you were awake."
"I wasn't. I'm always aware of your presence."
Buffy's smile widened into a grin. "You know that's creepy beyond all measures, right?"
Spike smiled back at her, opening his eyes and turning his head so he faced her. "I am a vampire, after all." He propped himself up on one elbow. "So, what brings you to my humble abode? Surely it can't be the comfy chairs."
The Slayer shook her head. "No, I just came to tell you that we've got a reward challenge two hours after sunset tonight."
Spike raised his eyebrows. "That so? What've we got to do?"
"Doesn't say. Just a bunch of rhyming about, 'beware, blah blah, reward, blah blah, beware.'"
Spike laughed aloud. "Yeah, well, we knew the host was a wanker when he named our tribe after himself." The vampire cocked his head and regarded the Slayer with an evenness that made Buffy a tad nervous. Her hair looked more golden than blonde here; maybe it was the intensified sun, he decided. He watched her without blinking while she looked around the cave, clearly wanting to strike conversation but too hungry to want to stay long. He nodded toward the entrance of the cave. "You can go, love."
"Are… are you sure? Because I can stay. You look like you need the company."
"And you look like you need the food. Tell you what. You come visit me once a day and I'll be all right. Daylight's always bloody annoying, but at least I have a little one-on-one with the real Slayer to look forward to."
Buffy frowned at the vampire. "Why are you suddenly being so open about your feelings for me?"
Spike smiled and frowned at the same time, probably something only a vampire could do. "I'm not rightly sure. Does it bother you?"
Buffy paused. "I'm not sure yet." She gave Spike a final smile and walked out of the cave without so much as a backward glance. Spike watched her go and stayed awake for a long time after, waiting for the daylight hours to tick by.
By the time Buffy got back to camp, everyone was awake and chowing down on roasted bird. No one was saying anything because they were too busy appreciating the meal that Oz and Oz alone provided. She noticed a plate made of bark set aside for her, complete with half a bird and a small pile of berries that were obviously found and picked by Dawn. Buffy sat down heavily on the tree stump Kennedy had uprooted and ate undaintily with the rest.
Oz finished first and put his plate down. He looked around at all the faces who were clearly enjoying his food, and he decided that now would be as good a time as any. "I was walking with Buffy in the woods at sunrise this morning when I realized that she looks older than I remember ever seeing her. I asked her how old she was and she said she was 22. She answered the question straight and without hesitation, and didn't catch on to why I was asking. Now I ask her another question: what year is it?"
The Slayer frowned at Oz and swallowed hard. "2003," she said thickly through the lovely poultry.
Oz nodded and smiled as Xander waved his hand around in protest. "Hold up here, Buff. I'm under the serious impression that it's only 2002."
Dawn frowned. "Actually, Xander, I've gotta side with Buffy on this one. It's 2003."
Wesley looked up and about from his plate, looking less pale than he had yesterday and much more alert. "Terribly sorry, but last time I checked it was only 2000."
"Gotta say that I'm a proud member of 2003, too," Kennedy interjected.
Tara looked around at everyone. "Am I the only one who thinks it's 2001?"
Oz smiled at the witch across from him. "Don't worry, I'm still back in the 90s. 1999, to be specific. We're all in different time frames."
Xander scoffed into his food. "Well, that explains the lack of Anya in my mind."
Buffy looked up with a dawning look of comprehension. "I wondered why I was so happy to be talking to you, Oz. It's because I don't think I've seen you in years."
"Oh," he responded with a frown. "Well, that's not promising." Then he looked up at the other Slayer of the crowd. "Kennedy, have we met?"
"No…" she said slowly. "But I know who you are and everything about you. I also know Tara, but I doubt we've met either for reasons I can't remember. I know that we're all Willow-oriented, though, like we've all been with Willow at some point. And we all are with Willow, at our given times… wow. This is nuts."
Oz nodded. "But then the question becomes, where is Willow in all of this? What year is she in?"
"Or is she even on the other tribe?" Tara asked, eyes glistening against the sun. "M-maybe she's exempt from all this madness because she's not even on the island?"
"We can only hope," Oz and Kennedy said simultaneously.
"Well, I think the main thing is that we can't let this come between us," Tara said. "If we figured out the years, we know when Willow will be with the other ones. Or… you know."
"But I'm not jealous," Kennedy responded. "I don't even care. Well, I guess I'm furthest in the future, but…"
"No, I'm not, either. I know this is the way it's supposed to be, and when I get home to my own time, it'll all be okay again. I may not even remember." Oz resigned to putting his thought back inside his head as Buffy, Dawn, Xander and Wesley watched this little exchange as though they were watching a tennis match. When their sub-conversation about Willow seemed to end, Buffy allowed her own mind to wander. "I wonder where Spike's at," she said aloud.
"We'll ask him when it's night. It's about five, it should be getting dark soon, anyway," Dawn noticed. She turned to Buffy. "I wonder if we're on the same wavelength because we're sisters?"
Buffy thought about it, and then shook her head. "I don't think so. I think it's just coincidence. Why is Kennedy in the same year, too?"
Dawn wrinkled her nose in thought. "I guess."
"Well, I imagine the other tribe is going through something similar. Surely someone's noticed the anomaly over there as well," Wesley said.
MEANWHILE…
Giles placed the squealing pear into the kettle that had been provided to them. They both watched the pear and nodded approvingly when went from squealing to release it to yelling in agony."Oh…" Willow said, looking at the melting pear with disdain, watching it flail its arms and legs around wildly. "I feel so bad."
"Probably because…" Faith began.
"Shh! Don't say it out loud," Willow warned her, still refusing to take her hands away from her face.
The Slayer rolled her eyes. "You're gonna have to come to grips with it eventually, Red. Somehow I doubt this pear torture is going to do much for ya. Though it is hilarious from my perspective."
"What, the funny 'my face' situation, or the dying pear?" Willow asked sarcastically.
"Both," she responded seriously.
Anya still looked disdainfully into the ocean, watching the sun start to set and not shielding her eyes from the orange rays. Giles noticed and went over to her. "There's nothing we can do," he said softly.
"Sure there is. We can wait," she responded, not looking away.
"No, Anya. It's been hours. They're gone."
"They can't be gone. People aren't just gone. They were here, so they have to come back."
Giles put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "It's going to be all right."
"No, it isn't, Giles! I went through this when… well, someone died, and I couldn't understand it, and I asked a whole bunch of questions but no one would answer me and I didn't understand what death was and I still don't. I don't want to. People don't just… go. I mean, they can go, but they can't go without going. It's not possible. I don't understand." The tears started pouring down Anya's face, glinting on her cheeks with the final rays of sun. Giles didn't say a word, but he didn't leave her side, either. They watched the sun set slowly and tried desperately to ignore the final whimpers of the destitute pear.
Angel threw the giant leaf off himself majestically and stretched. "Well, that was uncomfortable," he said into the silence. He looked down at his makeshift home that he'd been stuck under for the past twelve hours and the vampire inside him wanted to rip it to shreds. He was about to do it, too, before he decided it might be a slightly better idea to keep it and bring it back to camp in case he couldn't find somewhere else to hide in the days coming. He settled for kicking it aggressively, and then he picked it up and started making his way back to where he thought camp was.
He walked for ten minutes before he decided he was going in entirely the wrong direction. He turned and jumped at Drusilla, who was about six inches from where he was standing. "How long have you been following me?" he asked her, annoyed.
"I'm not sure…" she said dreamily. "I only followed the pretty leaf, and here you are, all attached to it. Coincidences are so…"
"Yeah, whatever." He brushed her crazy-talk off easily. Too much practice, he decided. "Do you know which way camp is? I'm usually much better at navigation than this. I didn't smell you, either… I can't smell anything, really. I guess I'm coming down with a cold."
"Oh, no!" Drusilla said, a look of pure horror striking her face. "My poor Angel has attracted an immune system… ooooh… his heart must be positively beating…"
Angel rolled his eyes and brushed past her. "I was being sarcastic."
"Oh." Drusilla smiled and trotted after him. "All right, then." Drusilla followed him closely but stayed mostly silent… she sang to a beetle and cried about a broken mushroom, but was otherwise on her sanest behavior. At least, until they ran into the dead people.
"Cordelia? …Finn? What are you doing out here?"
Cordelia huddled close to Riley and spoke through chattering teeth. "I was out looking for food and these giant bees started chasing after me. I ran into the water to try and escape them, but they wouldn't leave." Her face took on a slightly dreamier quality. "Riley dove in to save me. He was so brave." Riley blushed slightly and Angel tried desperately not to gag.
"Riley saved you, huh?" he said slightly sarcastically. Cordelia obviously didn't catch it.
"Yeah. Without any hesitation. Just threw his shirt right off and swam out to me in, like, six seconds. He told me that there was an opening a little ways under water and the bees would probably lose our scent if we went through it."
Riley cleared his throat and regarded the vampire with embarrassment and less hatred than usual. He seemed to be acknowledging that Cordelia was very silly when it came to attractive males that saved her life. "Yeah, well, little did I know that the cave led to the well. Low water level, mossy walls, no leverage. Fortunately, we could barely touch the bottom, so we haven't been treading water for twelve hours or anything."
"Yeah. Fortunately."
Again, the subtle sarcasm from the vampire with a soul was missed. "So nothing happened for a good long while. It started getting dark. Then Cordy had this idea that we should throw rocks at the bucket and try to tip it in here so I could climb up the rope and get out. It worked. So now we've been rambling through the woods trying to find camp."
"Yep, us too. So explain to me why you didn't just wait a while and then swim back through the passageway to camp?" Angel asked with a smirk.
Riley opened his mouth to respond sarcastically, and then frowned when he realized that Angel was really, really right. Cordelia's face dawned understanding at Angel's words and she looked up at him with an expression of pure annoyance with herself and Riley. "Geez," she muttered. "I wish you'd have saved me from the killer bees instead."
The shirtless soldier's face screamed betrayal as he turned to Cordelia. "Hey! Just a second ago, you were singing my praises!"
Cordelia regarded him with a strange look on her face. "Jealous much?" She turned to Angel. "Let's go," she said, and brushed passed him in the direction that he and Drusilla had just come.
"Uh, Cordy, we just came from that way."
"Yeah, and Riley and I were heading north from the well. Camp's this way," she instructed without looking back. Riley gave Angel a dirty look and ran to catch up with her. Angel sighed and followed.
"Ohh, the wind screams at me. Those two are wicked, they are," Drusilla stated as she scurried after Angel.
He laughed. "For once, Dru, I think you might be onto something there."