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Internet Message Format | 1997-07-30 | 270KB

From: "WorstWitch" <[e-mail]>
Subject: BUFFYFIC: "Needs Must ..." 1/1
Date: 15 Jul 1997 13:55:04 +0000

"Needs Must ..."
A "Buffy - the Vampire Slayer" Vignette
By WorstWitch

Introduction: no spoilers, no messy stuff, no plot to speak of.  Just
a little harmless character exploration by way of a test post ...

****************

Needs Must ...
By WorstWitch

"Don't you ever go home?"  The bright, young, female voice
dragged Rupert Giles - Sunnydale High's resident librarian -
from his after-hours work, back to reality.

He hadn't heard her approach, but, apart from the fact that
her stealth sometimes put a strain on his heart and nerves,
Giles considered it a good thing that she used her
supernatural talents so ... well ... naturally.

"Buffy," he greeted, swivelling his chair around so that he
could look at her.  Buffy Summers, the sixteen year old girl
who was the focus of his entire existence.  His destiny
smiled at him, for a moment almost sounding fond.

"Do you even *have* a home?" she asked, mock despairing,
then smiled, showing that she meant no harm.

"What can I do for you?" Giles enquired of her, glancing at
the clock to confirm that it was well past school hours - in
fact, it was into the hours which Buffy and her friends usually
spent bunched together dancing to that dreadful apology for
music at the Bronze night spot.  He could be sure that the
girl hadn't come for a book.

Buffy shifted from foot to foot, and Giles tried to read her
mood.  For once, he was looking up rather than down at her
periwinkle eyes, and it was nice to see her without her neck
craned back.  Buffy looked unsettled.  Restless.

"I got an itch," she stated, picking up one of his ornaments,
turning it over in her manicured hands, setting it back
impatiently on its stand.  "I've got this sudden and irrational
urge to go out and kill bad guys."  She wasn't smiling
anymore.  She was frightened - her eyes pleading him for
answers to her inner questions.

Giles supposed that it must be a worry, waking up to
murderous feelings like that.  And so young: sixteen years
old, and already a trained killer - the Slayer.  The world's best
weapon against the darkness which threatened to engulf it. And right
now she was feeling pre-menstrual or something and she was
experiencing the instinctive need to hunt and destroy the undead.

"That's good," he told her with a kindly smile.  Giles thought
that he was getting better at saying what Buffy wanted, or
needed, to hear.  "Grand.  Let's go hunting."

Giles picked up his notebook and pen, and rose to his feet.
Towering above the girl now, Giles had to keep his distance
in order to see her eyes.  His suggestion had not gone down
as successfully as he might have expected.  Buffy's eyes
flashed with uncertainty - a hundred confused teenage
feelings - and then were hidden by the judicious lowering of
her eyelashes.

"Don't you have work to do?" she asked, quietly indicating his
desk, the paperwork and the books.  Giles let his eyes follow
her pointing finger, and then backtrack to her pretty face.  It
wasn't too difficult to interpret the true meaning behind her
question.

"You don't want me to come?"

"No," Buffy said.  "Yes.  I mean ..."  She folded her arms
across her chest, tense, alert and yet introspective.  "If that's what
you Watcher guys are supposed to do, I guess ..."

"Don't be ashamed of how you're feeling," Giles told her,
matter-of-factly.  "The occasional instinctive desire to hunt is
... is quite normal."  Buffy looked incredulous, and Giles
realised that a qualification of that comment was in order.
"For the Slayer."

"And for a nicely turned out, friendly, witty and intelligent
young woman?" she asked, bordering on sarcasm.  She
didn't expect an answer.  Giles supposed that she was
letting off steam, and listened patiently.  He'd heard about
teenage mood swings, even if he was unable to remember
experiencing this contrary stage for himself.  "I should be at
the Bronze right now," she declared, beginning to pace.  She
really was restless; it would be good hunting tonight if he
could reassure her.  "I should be dancing with some guy,
trying to keep his pawing hand outta my ..."  Buffy pulled a
deadly sharp piece of wood from her cleavage, the
movement faster than Giles' eyes were able to follow.  Buffy
turned her sarcastic expression on full.  "Gee,  I guess that'd
be enough to put anybody off trying anything."

Giles smiled into his hand, almost keeping the amusement
out of his voice.

"Is that entirely necessary?" he asked, reasoning with her.
Sometimes she would not be reasoned with, and sometimes
she would.  Sometimes, all that he was able to do for the
Slayer was to help her put her difficulties into perspective.

"Actually," Buffy sighed, "my Mom would probably approve of
me taking precautions."  She waved the wooden stake
carelessly as she spoke - at ease with the weapon in her
hand.  Good.  Soon she would be ready for more
sophisticated tools; he hadn't carted his collection across
oceans and continents for nothing, then.

"You can never afford to pass up an opportunity to rid the
world of one more evil monster," Giles lectured, attempting to
break her morose mood - to distract her from her
embarrassment.  If only all that passionate feeling of hers
could be focused on her work ... "You're prepared, you feel
like hunting ..."

"I have the tools," Buffy quipped, brandishing the stake
dramatically.  "I have the talent!"  She planted her hands on
her hips in hero stance.

Bemused by her fluctuating moods, Giles nodded his head,
slowly.

"Yes ... exactly."

Buffy shrugged, popped the stake into her pocket, and
tossed him his own coat.  Her eyes were gleaming with the
feral light of hunting fever ... or was that just the bad lighting in
his office?

Giles shouldered his coat and switched out the light as he
followed Buffy.  She strode ahead of him, the picture of
control, tossing her fair curls in defiance of the world.  Woe
betide any undead demon who crossed this Slayer's path
tonight.

Even her voice bore a note of warning; low and authoritative
as she held open the door for Giles to follow her.

"Let's hunt!"

***
END
***



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (by way of [e-mail])
Subject: BUFFYFIC: BBETA: The Weapon:  Prologue
Date: 15 Jul 1997 09:39:52 -0400

Title:  The Weapon
Summary:  Not much to tell really... the real story starts in part one.
Rating:  Oh... prob'ly not any higher than PG.  Mebbe PG-13.
Disclaimer:  Don't really need one for this part, 'cause it's just the
prologue, and doesn't use any of the Main C's yet.  Just remember:  this is
*mine*.

*****

A hot, dry wind blew accross the scorched landscape, sending clouds of dust
and sand up into the air.    Black clouds streaked accross the burning sky,
marring it.  And, in the middle of this god-forsaken place, this desert
with a little bit of hell mixed in, sat a man at a campfire.  He was
dressed in rags, rags dirtied, torn, and burned by the passage of time.
His long black hair was dirty and wild, held in place by a red headband.
And his face... his face showed evidence of a man attacked by life, forced
by circumstance to grow, to harden.  The face was hard, the face was
rugged, and the face was strong.  But the eyes... the eyes showed pain.
They showed longing.  They showed the boy trapped inside the man, the boy
who was forced to grow before his time.  They showed remorse and loss and
desperation.

"Hey grub!"

The man slowly turned, coming face to face with something out of a
nightmare.  The demon was tall, and reptilian in appearance, with rows upon
rows of vicious fangs, and claws that look like they could rip through
steel.  And this nightmare had brought friends.  Several other creatures,
all worthy of a child's fever dream, stood with the monster.

"Is there something," asked the man, his tone calm and cold, "that you want?"
"You have it," hissed the demon, "we know you do.  Give it to us, and we
might kill you *quickly*."
"Oh," replied the man with a smirk, "you mean this?"

He extended his hand, palm down.  Then, with a quick flick of the wrist, a
silver sphere appeared in his hand.

"GIVE IT TO US!" screamed the beast.
"No," replied the man, "I don't think I will."
"Then we kill you."
"No," the man smiled, his eyes cold and hard, "I don't think you'll be
killing anybody ever again."

The man grasped the sphere firmly with both hands, and closed his eyes.
With disturbing speed, silver tendrils leapt out of the sphere, attacking
the demons.  Within seconds, the bodies of close to a dozen dead demons
littered the ground, ending the battle ended as suddenly as it had begun.

"They never learn..." muttered the man, as he examined the corpses.  His
eyes lit up in wonder as he drew a thin, elongated crystal from the dead
leader's pocket.
"Hmm," he wondered, "what's this?"

As he examined the crystal, he felt the sphere in his other hand begin to
vibrate.

"What the..." he exclaimed, as the sphere pulled towards the crystal.  The
closer the sphere was to the gem, the faster it vibrated.  Out of
curiosity, the man touched the two together.  The sphere suddenly stopped
vibrating, and emitted a high-pitched whine.  Then the crystal shattered.

"Uh-oh..." said the man, as the crystal chards began to whirl around him.
They spun faster and faster, floating above him, until they were spinning
so fast they formed a golden circle of gleaming light.  Then, suddenly,
violently, the man was pulled through the circle, and both vanished.

*****

Insert ominous music here....  more to come later.  Mwa-ha-ha-haaa!!

--Viashino, the DevilBunny Slayer--
"He's big an' dumb an' ready to fight.  A lot like 'ol hornhead here."
--Squee of the Weatherlight






-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail]
Subject: BUFFYFIC: The Weapon:  Part I/?
Date: 15 Jul 1997 16:45:10 -0400

Title:  The Weapon
Summary:  Xander mysteriously vanishes right before everyone's eyes, then a
familiar looking stranger appears...
Rating:  PG
Disclaimer:  All the original stuff here is *mine*.  The rest belongs to
Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and 20th Century Fox.

*****
THWHACK!

Giles' stumbled as Buffy's blow landed, most of the force luckily absorbed
by his pads.

"Buffy--" Giles' said, barely managing to duck under the girl's next strike.
"*Buffy*--" he repeated, as the Slayer attacked again.
"BUFFY!!"

Buffy halted in mid-swing.

"I'm sorry Giles," said the Slayer, "I kinda got into the training a little
too much I guess."
"That's quite alright," replied the wheezing Watcher, "I think we've done
enough training for today."
"'Kay!" replied Buffy, as she picked up her bag.  "See you later!"
"Yes, I suppose you will."

Giles unlocked the doors to the library, and was nearly flattened when
Xander rushed in, Willow in tow.

"Buffy," yelled a harried Xander, as he half-dragged Willow through the
door, "we have a problem."
"Omigod," replied the Slayer, her emotional state hightened by her friend's
distress, "what is it?  Vampire?  Demon?  Giant bug?  It's a giant bug
isn't it, I knew this would happen ag--"
"Math test."

Buffy glared at Xander.

"Math test?" she said.
"Yeah," replied Xander, "and from what I heard from the kids in 3rd period,
it's a biggie.  Anyway, crash-studying must be done, and I figured I have a
free and Willow has a free and you have--"
"To get to History.  Sorry!"
"Come on Buff!  We can get much more studying done as a trio!"
"Can't, gotta..." she trailed off, gazing just above Xander.  "What the--"
"What, what is it?  Do I have something in my teeth?"

Xander looked over to Willow.  She was gazing upwards too, as was Giles.
Finally, he looked straight up.  Floating mere inches above his head was
what looked like a ring of golden fire.  And it was expanding.

"Oh boy." said Xander, as he gazed into the blackness inside the ring.
Suddenly, Xander was violently sucked into the ring, and it vanished.

"XANDER!!" screamed Willow, her face white as a sheet.
"Oh my god..." muttered Giles.

Buffy simply stood there, staring at the spot Xander had occupied mere
seconds beforehand.  Finally, she spoke.

"Giles," she asked, "what just happened?"
"I--I," stammered the librarian, "I don't know.  It seemed to be a portal
of some sort, but beyond that."
Buffy sprung into action.
"Well I suggest we find out," she said, "so we can get Xander back as soon
as possible.  Willow--"  Buffy turned to find the diminutive hacker frozen,
pale as a ghost, and staring at the spot Xander had vanished from.
"Willow," repeated Buffy, as she put her hand on her friend's shoulder.
Willow shrunk back, collapsing to the floor, wracked with sobs.
'Shhh..." said Buffy, as she put her arms around the anguished girl, "come
on."
"Xander," sobbed Willow, "he's-- he, he--"
"I know." said Buffy, her tone calm and reassuring.  "But we need you to
hold together.  We're gonna need all the help we can get to figure out
where Xander is, and how to get him back.  So just keep it together, OK?"
"OK." said Willow, sniffling.
"C'mon," said Buffy, as she helped Willow up, "you go get on the 'net.  See
if you can dig up any info on stuff like this.  Giles, we'd better start
searching through the stacks."
"Yes," replied Giles, "that sounds like a plan."

Just as Buffy and Giles were marching off towards the stacks, and Willow
was starting up her computer, there was a loud crack inside the library,
like thunder.  Another ring of light appeared, as the three watched on.  It
then spit its contents onto the ground, and vanished.  A man, dressed in
dirtied, torn, rags, pulled himself up off the floor.   He brushed his
long, dirty, black hair away from his not much cleaner face, and was
standing upright just in time to be tackled by Buffy.

"OK pal," she yelled, "who are you and what have you done with Xan--" she
hadn't time to finish her sentence before she was hurled off of him by a
silver tentacle.  The man stood again, his right hand clutching a silver
sphere.

"Listen kid," yelled the man, as gazed about the room, "I don't know who
you are, or where I am, but nobody, and I mean *nobody* does that to me
and--" he stopped suddenly, his eyes fixed on the girl at the computer.
"Willow?" he said, as if her were questioning his own eyes.

Willow stood up, slowly, all the while keeping her eyes on the man.  She
slowly moved towards him, studying him.  There was something familiar about
him, something she just couldn't quite place--until she looked into his eyes.

"Xander?" she questioned.
"Willow!" he hollered, elated.  Quickly he snatched her up in a hug,
lifting her off the floor.
"Xander," gasped Willow, as he squeezed her, "what happened?
You've...changed."
"Yeah," said Xander, as he put Willow down, "well, ten years in Purgatory
will do that to you."
"WHOA!" shouted Buffy, getting the attention of everyone in the room.
"What exactly is going on here?"
"Buffy." Xander smiled as her looked at her.  "I guess I'd better start
from the beginning..."

*****

End Part I

*****

Dun-dun-duuuunnnnnn!  Part two coming out ASAP!

--Viashino, the DevilBunny Slayer--
NOSFERATU Prime Minister of Whup-@$$
"Now let's take violence, and put it in the Happy Box."
*growling*
"I SAID PUT IT IN THE HAPPY BOX!!!"
--Top Gun, "The Tick vs. The Tick"




-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: "WorstWitch" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: BUFFYFIC: "Needs Must ..." 1/1
Date: 16 Jul 1997 14:42:02 +0000

On 15 Jul 97 at 19:27, Jill Kirby wrote:

> This was great!  I'm so happy that the first post to the list was so
> well-written and characterised.  Some nice insights, too.
>
> :::applause:::  Thanks!  I hope we see lots more.  :)

Glad you enjoyed it.  Was I really the first?  Shucks <blush>.  A lot
of my stuff isn't suitable for the list rules for one reason or
another, but there may be some more of these little plotless
vignettes to come <g>  I love exploring Buffy's angst - she's
wonderful!

That version of "Needs Must" was, for anybody who cares about these
things, the absolutely last, totally and utterly final draft, btw.
Even 'laster' than the one at my web page.  I spell checked it and
*everything*.

WorstWitch

"You seem like such a flake.  And I mean that in a good way ..."
(Pike - Buffy: The Movie)

Fanfic, Anthony Head and Giles sadness at:
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Cavern/1497/giles.htm



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (slb)
Subject: Re: BUFFYFIC: "Needs Must ..." 1/1
Date: 16 Jul 1997 10:01:44 -0400

At  2:42 PM 7/16/97 +0000, WorstWitch wrote:
>On 15 Jul 97 at 19:27, Jill Kirby wrote:
>
>> This was great!  I'm so happy that the first post to the list was so
>> well-written and characterised.  Some nice insights, too.
>>
>> :::applause:::  Thanks!  I hope we see lots more.  :)

I musta missed something. Can someone E-mail WorstWitch's story to me?
Thanks,
Sheryl

[e-mail]
 --  "Doesn't he know better than to tease the lion?" Deb Martin
--   "Scary. I'll tell you something, though. There are a lot scarier
     things than you. And I'm one of them."  Buffy, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"










-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail]
Subject: BUFFYFIC: What are the odds
Date: 16 Jul 1997 11:11:45 -0400 (EDT)

I am just wondering what are the odds of going to Sarah Michelle Gellar
house, and she looks outside of the window and she think to herself, He is a
good looking person. And she invites you into her house. I am just wondring
what are the odds of this happening.



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail]
Subject: BUFFYFIC: Does anyone know
Date: 16 Jul 1997 11:11:46 -0400 (EDT)

I am just wondering does Sarah Michelle Gellar have a boyfriend.



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: "WorstWitch" <[e-mail]>
Subject: BUFFYFIC: "Mesmer" 1/3
Date: 17 Jul 1997 18:52:49 +0000

This story contains nothing that you wouldn't find on the show.  It
pokes gentle fun at the characters and at erotic/slushy literature but does
*not* - repeat - *not* contain erotic material.  For fear of being
kicked off the list, I've even taken out most of the fun-poking
'quotes' from "Mesmer".  Jeremiah would be horrified <G>

****
Mesmer by WorstWitch
Part 1 of 3

 "The world ceased to exist for Leanne - and in that
moment, she and Charles became one - "

Xander kicked the table leg beside Buffy, jolting the
paperback book out of her hands.

"Would you skip on down to the juicy stuff?" he requested
impatiently.  Willow and Buffy gave him a Look.

"Obviously the sensitivity of a romantic buildup is lost on
your cave-man mentality," Buffy said aloofly.  She and
Willow exchanged a wistful look, and sighed.

"At least there are *some* guys in the world with the
sensitivity to understand a woman's desires," Willow
consoled her, indicating the cover of the book Buffy was
reading from.  "Like Jeremiah Defoe."

She said the author's name with a kind of hushed reverence
and a cheesy smile that made Xander feel quite nauseous.
He pushed his lunch tray away with a wince.  His two best
friends had turned into mush.

"Between the two of you and Treacle Defoe, I've had just
about all the sensitive buildup I can take, thank you," he
said, shuddering.  Still, the rest was reputed to be worth the
wait ... perhaps he shouldn't be so hasty here.  "Borrow it
when you're done?" he said, leaning closer to Buffy.

"No way!" Willow and Buffy chorused as one.  "Get your
own copy!"

Xander actually blushed at the thought of walking into a
bookstore and picking up such an object as this from the
Romantic Trash section.  But Defoe's "Mesmer" was the talk
of the entire school, and had been for the past week.  Even
Buffy and Willow had fallen into line with the latest fad.
Xander knew for a fact that Buffy's copy - already dog-eared
enough to make Giles the librarian cry - had pencil notes in
the margin.

Page ninety-eight was supposed to have a paragraph about
feathers and honey that ...

"Xander!" Willow shouted in his ear.  Somehow, she and
Buffy had cleared away lunch and got ready to leave while
his mind had been on the mysterious page ninety-eight.  "The
bell just went!"

"I know," Xander lied swiftly, and bolted to his feet.  No ...
he hadn't been lost in the realm of romance fiction.  Not this
cool and totally disinterested guy.

Xander blushed.

***

"Et tu, Rupert?"  Ms Calendar grinned at him from the other
side of the desk, having caught the school's staid librarian in
the act of reading the book that all the students were going
crazy over.  "I have to hand it to you - on this occasion, the
printed page has proved mighter than the monitor.  There
wasn't a mind in my class this morning that wasn't on 'page
ninety-eight'."

She wanted something.  Giles quietly closed his copy of
"Mesmer" and put it down.  The only reason that Ms
Calendar would ever admit to the superiority of the printed
page was that she needed something from him.

"I'm sure they'll get over it," he said, consoling her.  "And go
back to being brainless illiterates."

"You don't really think that about the students do you?" she
asked, taken aback.  Offended; she believed in those kids.
Giles blinked.  He hadn't meant her to take that seriously,
and wondered at himself for saying it aloud in the first place.
He didn't know her well enough to trust her with such dark
sarcasm.

"No of course not.  Although some of them are bordering on
illiteracy."

"True," Calendar admitted uncomfortably, her wild, dark hair
bobbing with her nod.  "Not much traffic in the library then?"

"I've had more customers since this book went on sale than
in the entire time I've been here," Giles told her ruefully.
"Unfortunately I've had to send them away disappointed.
Principal Snyder has expressly forbidden me to order what he
refers to as 'immoral trash' - even after I pointed out that this
might be the first and only book that some of them ever choose to
read."

"Oh," Calendar said, shifting her feet.  She looked pretty
today, Giles noted, removing his glasses and offering her a
weary smile.  Another fascinating silver necklace decorated
her throat; she must have an exhaustive collection of them.
"What can I do for you Ms Calendar?" he wondered
amiably.

"Well actually ... I came to see if you had a copy of that
damned book," she admitted, flushing, pointing to the item in
question where it lay at his elbow.  Giles gave her a smile - a
proper smile - and watched her expression go into overdrive -
confused, startled, pleased.  He spoke before she could think
of anything to say.

"Here," he said, removing his book marker from "Mesmer"
and offering her the lusty paperback.  "Take mine."

***

"Oh my gosh," Willow commented, and closed her mouth,
which had been hanging open, with something of a snap.  "I
can't read this part out loud."

Buffy had seen her friend in many states, from joy to abject
terror in the face of certain death.  But she had never, ever,
seen Willow blush before.  Peering over her comrade's
shoulder with some eagerness, Buffy felt her own jaw go
slack, and her heart quicken.  Then she blushed too.  The
girls exchanged glances and giggled.

"I can't believe that a *man* wrote this," Buffy sighed, starry
eyed.  "It's so ...."

"Makes you go all ..."

"Marshmallowy."

"Yeah."  Willow sighed, resting her chin in her hands while
they took a break from the gloriously mushy novel.  "I
wonder if he ... you know ... researches this stuff
personally?"  An impish grin spread across her face.  "What
about page ninety-eight?  Do you think he's tried that?"

"I don't know," Buffy said, shaking her head in awed
thoughtfulness.  "Jeremiah Defoe.  I wonder who he is?"

"Maybe he's a she?"  Willow suggested, brightening with her
idea.  "You know, a pseudonym?"

"Oh no!" Buffy said, distraught at the idea.  "Oh c'mon, we
can dream can't we?  That somewhere in the world there's a
guy who knows exactly how to push our buttons?"

Willow's expression darkened and hardened all at once, and
Buffy stared at her.  Willow was looking right past her.

"Speaking of button-pushing ..." her friend stammered.  Buffy
turned around, expecting something hideous.  Close enough -
it was Mister Snyder, the school principal.  Coming right for
them.  "We haven't done anything have we?" Willow asked
Buffy nervously, watching the black-suited figure stride across
the lawn.

There was nothing that Buffy could think of ... but then it was
said that Snyder didn't always need a reason to be mean to
you.

"Well well," the principal said with false cheer.  "Two more
converts to the word of Jeremiah Defoe.  The bell sounded
..." he checked his watch.  "Thirty seconds ago.  And you're
still here."

"We were just going to class," Buffy said.  She squirmed.  If
you asked her to back you up while you were facing a
vampire with three heads, Willow was a great companion.
Faced with the school principal, however, she was hopeless -
a dead loss.  "Sir," she added, as an afterthought.  Snyder
nodded knowingly.

"You, Miss Rosenberg, are late for Computer Science class
and you, Miss Summers, are late for English.  This has got to
stop," he said,  using that smile of his which always reminded
Buffy of fingernails scraping down a chalkboard.  "Nobody is
getting anything done!  And why?  Because of this trashy
book!"

Buffy winced.  They would only be a minute or so late for
class - they would just have made it on time if it weren't for
the unwelcome interruption.  It didn't take a clairvoyant to
see what was coming.  Snyder drew himself up to his full
height - which wasn't very high at all - and held out his hand.
"The book, if you please," he commanded.

Willow handed it over with a sigh.

***

"You seem like such a flake.  And I mean that in a good way ..."
(Pike - Buffy: The Movie)

Fanfic, Anthony Head and Giles sadness at:
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Cavern/1497/giles.htm



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: "WorstWitch" <[e-mail]>
Subject: BUFFYFIC: "Mesmer" 3/3
Date: 17 Jul 1997 18:52:50 +0000

Mesmer by WorstWitch
Part 3 of 3

Ms Calendar was stretched out on her bed, leaning on her
elbows, her eyes glued to the pages of the book which
Rupert had loaned her.  The story had started slowly, but
from the beginning had been full of innuendo and metaphor.
The words - the image they created, the mood - were
incredibly sexy.

No wonder the students were going wild over the thing;
trying to imagine the way she felt now, after reading page
ninety-eight, only magnified by the hormonal surge of
adolescence, Calendar could quite understand why
"Mesmer" had gripped their teenage hearts.  She preferred
not to think about what effect it was having to their teenage
bodies.  She was having enough trouble controlling her own
reactions to the heady blend of romance and erotic action.

Where was a good, solid, loving man when you needed one?

Ms Calendar took a deep, calming breath, let it out in a sigh,
and turned the page.

***

Buffy yawned.  She sniffed, and yawned again, drooping over
her textbook.  Who cared about great American poets when
there were three whole chapters of "Dream Catcher" left to
read?  She had fallen asleep over the book in the small
hours, and it seemed like only seconds later that her mother
had shaken her awake again and said it was time for school.
She really hadn't meant to stay up all night reading ... but
"Dream Catcher" was just so beautiful.  Not, admittedly, as
hot in the action department as the later "Mesmer", but still
full of magic and romance; subtle heroes and intriguing
heroines ....

"Buffy ..."  Their English teacher was shaking her shoulder
gently.  "Buffy ...?"

Class, it seemed, had finished while Buffy was dozing.  "Is
everything alright at home Buffy?" asked Mrs Spencer kindly.
"This isn't like you."

"Oh ... I just ... couldn't sleep," Buffy apologised, stumbling. She
did *not* need a session with the school counsellor when she ought to
be wallowing with Willow over the latest reading matter.

"Well off you go," Mrs Spencer said indulgently - she wasn't
usually this mellow.  Buffy wondered if she'd been up half
the night reading Defoe too.

Buffy went in search of Willow to share her good fortune at
obtaining "Dream Catcher', but the other girl was nowhere to
be found

***

"Read any good books lately Giles?" asked Willow, watching
the Watcher from her perch on the library counter.  Forty-ish,
tall, well spoken - Rupert Giles had appealed to her from the
moment they met.  For his intellect, of course.  His love of
books.  And the fact that he didn't look down his nose at her
like something that didn't smell too good - that he talked with
her not at her, and would listen to her ideas.  He wasn't at all
like you might think to look at him.

"Um ..." Giles was carrying a tall stack of poetry books
towards the steps; how often had she heard him wonder at
the stupidity of somebody who'd design a library on two
levels without a ramp for the book trolley?  "Not of late.
Why, are you short of ... reading material?"

He made it up the few steps to the poetry section without
mishap, and carefully set his stack down beside the shelf.

"Me?  No.  I've been reading "Mesmer" like the rest of the
school.  No ... make that like the rest of the country."

Giles rolled his eyes, discreetly, and returned to the returns
shelf for another pile.

"You don't like computers do you Giles?" Willow asked,
scrutinising him carefully.

"Have you been talking with Ms Calendar again?" Giles
asked, his voice rather pained.

"No.  I've been surfing the internet," Willow answered,
leaning a little towards the Watcher so that he could hear her
as he moved away with another burden of books.  "Trying to
find out more about Jeremiah Defoe."

Giles tripped on the bottom step and dropped all but the
book at the bottom of his stack; cursed as he righted himself,
and turned to look at her with an expression that he normally
saved for Buffy.  Questioning.  Anxious.  Ever so slightly
terrified.  Willow smiled innocently at him.  "The whole
school wants to know about him," she said, sliding neatly off
the counter and crossing to begin helping him pick up the
fallen books.  "He's a hero."

His green eyes bored into her from behind the trim
spectacles.

"The world has quite enough heroes," he admonished her
seriously, gathering books furiously.  "You'll get caught one
of these days Willow."

Willow smiled as she handed him the last of the hardback
casualties.

"So will you."

Giles didn't answer.

***

"I thought you'd want this back," Ms Calendar said, dropping
Rupert's copy of "Mesmer" onto the desk in front of him, and
regarding the librarian in something of a new light.
Obviously his taste in reading matter was somewhat broader
than she had imagined.  And considerably less dull.  Rupert
turned his chair so that he could look at her.  Was it her
imagination, or did the man look a tiny bit smug?

"Did you enjoy it?" he wondered, voice neutral.  A warm,
gentle British voice, just like the sensitive and sexually
proficient hero of "Mesmer".  Calendar shivered, annoyed
with herself for letting the thought enter her head.

"That'd be an understatement," she told him.  She wasn't
going to tell the man that her dreams had seen him - Rupert
Giles - cast in the role of "Charles" and she as "Leanne".  Or
that they'd been the nicest dreams she'd had in ages.  He'd
laugh.  And if he didn't laugh ...  "I gotta get back to the lab,"
Calendar told him, her cheeks turning red under his curious stare.
"Thanks for the loan."

She hurried out of his office, and closed the door behind her.

***

Willow had been quite understanding really, Giles supposed,
wondering at his close call with unwilling fame.  The price of
her silence little enough to pay.

"I get to read the next book before it's published," she'd said,
arms folded loosely, eyes twinkling at him and ... ever so
slightly ... marvelling.  "And I get a mention in the
dedication."

"Or what?" Giles had enquired, nervously.

"Or I tell Buffy.  And maybe Ms Calendar ..."

"It's a deal," he'd agreed without pause.  Willow had
beamed at him, showing her perfect white teeth.

"My hero," she cooed, touching his arm to show that she
meant no harm, still grinning.  Giles managed to smile, truly
fond of the girl.  It was only after her departure that his knees
turned to water and he needed to go to his office and make a pot of
tea.  That had *truly* been a close call.

Giles rubbed his eyes and replaced his glasses on his nose,
looking down at the blank sheet of paper before him, and
tapping the sharpened pencil.  One more book.  What harm
could it do?  The money was useful after all  - Slayers could
be expensive to know; just moving across the Atlantic to
Watch Buffy had cost a pretty penny.  Besides, the world - or
at least the students of Sunnydale High and his publisher -
were crying out for more addictively romantic novels like
"Mesmer".

Yes.  One more and then I'll retire, Giles promised himself.
Forgetting that he had made a similar promise after
completing each of his four earlier manuscripts.  Shutting out
the trials of reality, he began to write.

 ***
 For My Clever Hacker
 "Watching Her"
 By Jeremiah Defoe
 ***

END

"You seem like such a flake.  And I mean that in a good way ..."
(Pike - Buffy: The Movie)

Fanfic, Anthony Head and Giles sadness at:
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Cavern/1497/giles.htm



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: "WorstWitch" <[e-mail]>
Subject: BUFFYFIC: "Mesmer" 2/3
Date: 17 Jul 1997 18:52:50 +0000

Mesmer by WorstWitch
Part 2 of 3

"You know this book is a bestseller in our age group right
across the country?"  Xander held his copy of "Mesmer" as if
it were some priceless Aztec treasure.

"Really?" Giles asked indifferently.  "Don't you have classes
Xander?"

"Free," the young man responded absently, already turning to
page one of his new acquisition.  "Thought I'd catch up on
some reading ..."  Giles sighed, rubbing his forehead, and
smiled a little with fondness for the folly of youth.

"I didn't think you were sharing Buffy and Willow's thirst for
erotic fiction," he commented.  "As I recall, your exact words
were: 'blech that's gross'."

"Well ... a guy can change his mind," Xander said, sliding
down in one of the reading chairs, absorbed in the text.
Slowly, the boy's eyes grew wider, and wider; he shifted
uncomfortably, almost put the book down, and then frowned
and returned to scanning the lines with intense concentration
and interest.

Giles smiled.

***

Even the cover was hideous, Snyder thought as he carried
several more confiscated copies of the Defoe filth back to his
office.  Maroon, silver lettering, with a dreadfully glaring
picture of a man and a woman kissing on a railway platform.
Kissing like the world was going to end and they were saying
goodbye.  Or was that a greeting - were they happy to see
one another after a  long and painful absence?

Principal Snyder frowned, not noticing as his secretary hastily
thrust her own copy of the offending book into a drawer and
returned to her computer.

Dropping five books onto his desk, and letting open the
blinds for some good reading light, Snyder thumbed open the
book, bent back the spine with a crack, and started to skim
read.  Well it was his job to know what was going on among
the students, wasn't it?  How was he to stay one step ahead
of them if he didn't keep abreast of their interests?

***

Willow yawned into the sleeve of her dressing gown,
knowing that she ought to go to bed and catch at least a
couple of hours sleep before school tomorrow.  Instead she
was raiding the internet for every last drop of information
regarding a certain author - and she was not alone.  Willow
lurked for a while in a chat room devoted to the subject of
"Mesmer" and its earlier, less well publicised predecessors.
She interrupted the drooling to ask her question - but nobody
else knew the first thing about Jeremiah Defoe either.
Speculation, however, abounded.

plaster>> I think it's Michael Jackson using another name
scox>> no male of the species could write this unless he was
you know, that way inclined

Willow blinked.  Even to her somewhat inexperienced eyes,
it was plain that Defoe knew a *lot* more about women than
that.

Glip>> I tried to send him a letter once

Willow frowned, and summoned a private window to
communicate with "Glip".

>> What happened?  Where'd you send it?
Glip>> I got a letter back from the guy's agent saying that
Jeremiah thanked me for my interest and was glad that I'd
enjoyed his books.  Form letter.  Guess he gets a lot of fan
mail.
>> You got the agent's address?

Her cyber-bloodhound instinct was kicking in - perhaps there
was a trail here that she could follow at last, to find out the
truth about the author who had turned Sunnydale's teenage
community into starry-eyed zombies.

***

Late home, as per usual, Buffy's mother Joyce was surprised
to find her only child still awake - usually, Buffy didn't wait
up for her to come home.  Joyce smiled, greeting her daughter
with a conspiratorial wink.

"Glad you're up," she said, even though she was also about
to tell the little minx to scoot into bed quick smart.  "Got you
a present."

Buffy blinked - she'd been reading in dim light again Joyce
noticed worriedly.  The girl was sure to damage her eyes ...
then again, Buffy didn't seem to do all that much actual
reading when she was home.  Perhaps that was why she
spent so much time in the school library with Willow and
Xander - to read there for leisure as well as study.

"Cool," Buffy said, rubbing her eyes, revealing that her book
of choice was "Mesmer".  Joyce smiled slyly and handed
over a smart paper bag.  Buffy's eyes widened in amazement
when she saw the book inside.

"Like it?" Joyce asked unnecessarily.  Buffy was speechless
just for a change, and Joyce laughed as the girl hugged her
fiercely.  "You like it," she said, wondering when her
daughter had developed such crushing strength in her hugging
muscles.  "Good," she said, patting the girl's back to make
her let go.  "I special ordered it for you."

"I love it," Buffy corrected, springing for the stairs.  "Thanks
Mom!"

"Don't stay up all night reading!" Joyce called, knowing that
it was probably a futile request given that Buffy was already
opening her new book before she even got to the top of the
stairs.

Buffy threw herself down on her bed and smiled happily
down at the cover of "Dream Catcher - a passionate first
novel by Jeremiah Defoe".

***

Sometimes you had to do something that was a little bit
illegal before you got anywhere.  Willow took about five
minutes to discover the password to the database at "Albright
and Moss Literary Agents, London".

It hadn't been designed to be secure - probably the same
system they'd used for years before thinking about adding a
modem to their network and going online.  After all, who
would want to hack into the database of a small literary
agency?  Willow felt guilty, and ignored it.  She wasn't doing
any harm, and she wasn't going to get caught.  Just a little
harmless snooping around.

At the very least, she might discover just how much a writer
like Defoe earned in a tax year.  Enough to live in opulence
in the English countryside, no doubt.  Willow pictured him
with Red Setter dogs, strolling amid fields of wheat ... Defoe.
Richard.  No.  Defoe, Jeremiah.  Yes.

Her heart leapt in triumph, and her palms started to sweat -
same old excitement at finding what few others in the world
could have found so easily.  Damn - another password on the
individual data file.  Willow frowned hard as she drummed
her fingers on the desk.  This one would be a personal
password - the password chosen by Defoe's personal agent.
Damn.

Didn't look like she was going to be getting any sleep after
all.

***

"You seem like such a flake.  And I mean that in a good way ..."
(Pike - Buffy: The Movie)

Fanfic, Anthony Head and Giles sadness at:
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Cavern/1497/giles.htm



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail]
Subject: BUFFYFIC: The Weapon:  Part III/?
Date: 17 Jul 1997 22:07:05 -0400

Title:  The Weapon
Rating:  G, for this part at least.
Summary:  The new Xander showers, eats, and chats with Buffy.
Disclaimer:  All the original stuff here is *mine*.  The rest belongs to
Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and 20th Century Fox.

*****

"Here!" Buffy shouted over the sound of the shower.
"What?" yelled Xander in reply.
"I brought you some clothes," she shouted, "old stuff my dad left with us.
I'll leave it by the sink."
"Thanks!"
"And," muttered Buffy, looking down at the muck-encrusted rags on the
floor, "I'll just go burn these."
"What?" shouted Xander, as Buffy scurried out of the bathroom, Xander's old
clothes in tow.

*****

"Thanks for the use of the shower." said Xander, as he came down the
stairs, toweling his hair.
"No problem," said Buffy, as she put the finishing touches on a
peanut-butter and jelly sandwich, "after all you *did* spend the last ten
years in--"

Buffy paused as she saw Xander.  The jeans and T-Shirt accentuated his form
perfectly, clinging to his well-tanned, muscular body.  His long, wild,
black hair fell about his shoulders, framing his handsome face.

"Ooh." she muttered absentmindedly, "hunky."

Xander smiled.

"You couldn't have said that to me ten years ago?" he jibed.
"Huh?" Buffy snapped out of her trance.  "Oh, I'm sorry I didn't mean to--"
"Hey, s'okay.  I did pretty much the same thing the first time I saw you.
You know, it took most of the decade I was over there, but I finally got
over you."
"Oh," said Buffy, flushed with embarrassment.  She quickly changed the
subject.
"Hey," she said, "I made you a sandwich."

Xander's eye's lit up with joy as he snatched the sandwich up off the plate
and began to devour it.

"Buffy," he said between bites, "you are a goddess."
"Well," she replied, "I've never quite gotten *that* response from peanut
butter and jelly before!"
"Well," Xander quickly swallowed, "I haven't had any real food in almost a
decade."
"Huh?  What've you been living off of?"
"Raw energy.  The sphere can take the life energy from those it kills.
Because of our symbiotic connection, it can transfer that energy to me."
"So every demon you dust is another snack?"
"Yeah, pretty much."
"Sounds yummy."
"Actually, there isn't really any taste to it at all.  It's just sort of a
tingly feeling, like static cling."
"Cool.  Speaking of the Sphere, where is it?"

Xander held up his left forearm.  Attached to its underside was a silver
blob, sliding about.

"Ah." said Buffy.

Xander finished the sandwich, and wiped his hands and face off with a napkin.

"C'mon," he said, tossing the napkin in the trash, "we'd better get back to
the library.  We're all gonna have to work on this if we're gonna save me.
Er, him.  Er... you know."
"Yeah I get it." Buffy smirked as she grabbed her leather jacket.

Xander sighed.

"I hate interdimensional travel." he lamented, then followed the Slayer out
the door.

*****

End Part III

*****

--Viashino, Hunter of DevilBunnies--





-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Jill Kirby <[e-mail]>
Subject: BUFFYFIC: Stake Boy Meets the Slayer
Date: 17 Jul 1997 22:32:36 -0500 (CDT)

Extremely, extremely, <extremely> tongue-in-cheek!  Just a little
"I'm glad the list is up and running" story.  :)

This is set not long after "Last Knight" in the "Forever Knight"
timeline, and sometime before "Welcome to the Hellmouth" in the Buffy
timeline.  Not that this is serious enough to worry about timelines,
anyway...

Comments, constructive criticism, or vials of holy water to
[e-mail].

***

Stake Boy Meets the Slayer
 a Forever Knight/Buffy the Vampire Slayer crossover
 by Jill Kirby


When Nick woke, he could hardly open his eyes from the pain.  He wasn't
dead.  He could feel the stake penetrating his chest-- not deep enough
to kill him, but deep enough that it wouldn't heal any time soon.  And
he was too weak to pull the stake out.

He managed to open his eyes and look over to where Natalie had fallen
on the floor, nearly drained of blood.

She wasn't there.

As Nick struggled to assimilate this information, he heard the elevator
start to grind.  Who was it?  LaCroix, back to finish the job?  Reese?
Slowly, painfully, he turned his head to face the elevator, waiting
with trepidation for someone-- or something-- to emerge.

The door squealed open and a girl walked out.  Girl, not woman; she
was probably still in high school.  She walked over to him casually,
her knee-high boots clicking on the floor of the loft, then stood over
Nick and regarded him with a frown.

"Hmm.  You don't look so good."  She shrugged a backpack off her
shoulders and tossed it onto the floor beside her.  "This makes my job
a heck of a lot easier, doesn't it?"

Nick opened his mouth and, amazingly, was able to speak.  "Natalie?"

"And Natalie would be...  Who?" the girl queried, flipping a strand of
hair away from her face.  When Nick didn't answer, she sighed deeply.
"I did see some woman with curly hair making herself scarce, if that's
who you mean."

She was alive.  Nick closed his eyes for a moment in gratitude.

The girl tapped her toe for a moment, then her face cleared.  "I get
it.  You're a vampire from the  'Forever Knight' universe, aren't you?
Like the other one?  I'm never sure what universe I'm about to
encounter.  There are just too damn many these days."

Nick's fangs disappeared and he felt his vision clear as the confusion
in his mind increased to unusual levels, even for him.  "I have no idea
what you are talking about."

The girl rolled her eyes dramatically.  "Try following me.  I know it's
hard.  You're a vampire, right?"

Nick was about to protest, then saw the look in the girl's eyes.  He
nodded slowly.  No sense in denying it; this odd girl with the hair
falling in her face knew exactly what he was.  "How did you know?"

"The stake coming out of your chest gave me the initial clue.  And that
outfit.  It's so...  Second season.  So not now."

Nick glanced down at his outfit, which looked perfectly fine to him
with the exception of the wood  protruding from his chest, then back at
the girl.  "Who <are> you?"

"Not your best friend."  The girl pulled a stake out of her sleeve and
smiled as Nick cringed.  "My name is Buffy."

"Buffy?" Nick asked in disbelief.

"Hey, stake boy, don't laugh," Buffy said menacingly.  "I'm not holding
this chunk of wood for my health."

Nick felt his eyes go red and his fangs drop-- though not as much as
usual, since he was weak from blood loss.  Buffy watched his face
closely.

"Keen.  In my world, vampires go through this nasty face thing when
they want to feed.  In the FK world, just your eyes change and your
teeth drop."  The girl began to tick things off on her fingers.  "I
should write a book about all this stuff.  In the Anne Rice universe,
crosses don't bother vampires, for example.  You?"

"I have... a little trouble with them."

"Yeah, but that white-haired guy I just offed didn't.  Go figure."  She
tapped one finger on her cheek.  "Remind me.  Holy water?  A problem?"

White-haired guy?  Did she mean LaCroix?  "Not really."

"Decapitation?"

"Sometimes yes, sometimes not so much."

Buffy nodded, taking this new information in.  "Well, I certainly know
that stakes work."

"You mentioned..."  Nick cleared his throat.  "A white-haired guy?"

"Yeah.  Big.  Nasty.  Huge attitude problem."  Buffy made a washing
motion with her hands.  "He's dust."  She twirled the stake lightly.
"Now, you don't look too comfortable.  Let's get on with this."

Nick took a deep breath, trying to comprehend

"We can make this easy, or we can make this hard."

Nick glanced down at the stake that was already halfway into his
chest.  "I think I'll take the easy way."

Thud.  "Ow."  Poof.

One more down.

Buffy regarded her nails critically, then sighed.  Off she went.  Next
she had to tackle one from the Tanya Huff universe.  Those vampires
were so damn antisocial that they were always hard to find.  At least
these FK vampires hung out together.  One trip to that smoky Raven
place and half of Toronto was cleaned up.

She couldn't wait to move to Sunnydale.  Maybe there she'd be able to
stop all this and live a <normal> life.

***
Jill Kirby ~~  [e-mail] ~~ www.geocities.com/SoHo/Lofts/4107
The Buffy Mailing List page:  http://www.mindspring.com/~romana/buffylist/
     And it ought to be easier
     To leave when you know that you have to go
     To leave when you know that you have to go...
                  --Lyle Lovett




-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Ottawa Low Family <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: BUFFYFIC: Stake Boy Meets the Slayer
Date: 18 Jul 1997 00:18:41 -0400 (EDT)

At 10:32 PM 7/17/97 -0500, Jill Kirby wrote:
>Extremely, extremely, <extremely> tongue-in-cheek!  Just a little
>"I'm glad the list is up and running" story.  :)
Tongue-in-cheek is good.  It's just dangerous is you are laughing.

>Buffy regarded her nails critically, then sighed.  Off she went.  Next
>she had to tackle one from the Tanya Huff universe.  Those vampires
>were so damn antisocial that they were always hard to find.

Ok, for some reason, I really don't mind all that much that Nick is dust.
There's just no way I want Vicki meeting the business end of a stake.  Of
course, some part of me believes that Vicki would be more problematic than
LaCroix, The Master, and Darla combined.  But in a good way.  <g>

Kimberley




-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (slb)
Subject: Re: BUFFYFIC: Stake Boy Meets the Slayer
Date: 18 Jul 1997 05:00:28 -0400

At 10:32 PM 7/17/97 -0500, Jill Kirby wrote:
>Extremely, extremely, <extremely> tongue-in-cheek!  Just a little
>"I'm glad the list is up and running" story.  :)

LOL! Thanks for the early morning giggles. Glad to see Knight getting what
he really deserves. Now, how 'bout a little Buffy/Angel story for us
'shippers?

Sheryl

[e-mail]
 --  "Doesn't he know better than to tease the lion?" Deb Martin, after
meeting My Favorite Waiter <g>
--   "Scary. I'll tell you something, though. There are a lot scarier
     things than you. And I'm one of them."  Buffy, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"










-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail]
Subject: BUFFYFIC: The Sighing Game (1/3)
Date: 18 Jul 1997 18:24:35 -0400 (EDT)

I sent this story to the other Buffy-beta list so for some of you it may look
awfully familiar.  But I thought I'd send it anyway for those of you who are
so deprived as to have missed it, and because I am currently writing the
sequel.
Hope you enjoy!
Rebecca
Lady [e-mail]
########
Disclaimer: None of the characters from Buffy the Vampire Slayer belong to
me, though I am rather attached to Angel, ah well.  They belong to Joss
Wheadon, Mutant Enemy, maybe the WB..but definitely not me.  Don't sue
because I have no money.
The story takes place two weeks after Angel (the episode) and it has nothing
to do with any of the resulting episodes...there are some spoilers for Angel,
and Teacher's Pet.
This story is pretty much a lot of introspective pondering and a lot of
romance (Angel/ Buffy..sorry Xander :) but there will be some action.  This
is part one, part two occurs at the same time as part one and is from Angel's
point of view. There will be a part three as well.  Any comments can be sent
to Lady [e-mail].  Sorry for any typos.

The Sighing Game  (part one)
By: Rebecca Carefoot

     Buffy stared morosely out her bedroom window.  The rain that streaked
the windowpane mirrored her dark mood.  She had to say that without a shadow
of a doubt this majorly sucked.  She had finally found a guy who she was in
love with who actually loved her back and he even knew about the whole Slayer
thing.  It was too good to be true, literally.  She flopped onto her bed
staring at the ceiling.  How could she have fallen in love with a vampire?
 Ok so he's a good vampire but he's a vampire none the less.

      She thought about him for a second, those dark brown eyes, liquid pools
of chocolaty brownness that she could just fall into and let the whole stupid
world go to hell.  What did the world ever do for her anyway?  Oh, and that
hair just a little spiky in the front.  That nose so straight and well it was
just a cool nose however you wanted to describe it.  He always looked so
super cool in those jackets he constantly wore over a white t-shirt or tank
top.  And the body that those t-shirts covered.  She bit her lip thinking
about that body.  Those muscles, that broad chest, and those delicious arms.
 His skin was so white, she shivered.  Yikes, she definitely needed to get
her mind off that subject before she melted.  His lips, so firm, and those
kisses...she had never felt anything like that.  Not in all her 16 years.  It
took her breath away and left her happy to be gasping.  When she was with
Angel the whole world just disappeared and she didn't even miss it.  But she
had sent him away.  She groaned.

       It was the right thing to do, the only thing she could do.  Why had
she done it? What was wrong with her?  I mean just because he has one teeny
tiny, ok one humungoid flaw...why should they have to be apart?  The truth
was she knew if she saw him again, no when she saw him again, she would lose
any self-control she had left.  She would throw herself into his arms and
cover him with kisses.  She rolled over onto her stomach; she wanted to see
him so badly.  It had been weeks since their meeting at the Bronze.  The
meeting where she had said that they could never be anything...auuggghh.
 What had she been thinking?  All she wanted in the world was for them to be
something.  Why did it have to be so hard?

     It was destiny she knew it, but deep within her heart she also knew it
would be just as hard to be with him.  Sure there would be moments of joy but
when you came right down to it, he wasn't really a man.  He was a monster
with a demon inside him.  A horrible, horrible monster.....who had saved her
life more than once.  And he DID have his soul back.  He had been good for a
century or more.  That had to count for something.    He hadn't killed a
living human since he got his soul back, and there was so much pain inside
him.  A vampire couldn't feel guilt the way he did.  They couldn't care for
her the way he did.  But he was a vampire, no getting around it.  And what
was she going to do if he ever accidentally revealed his true face to her
mom.  Being grounded for life would be an understatement.  And what if his
soul couldn't fight the demon anymore and he became evil again, and she had
to kill him but she couldn't because she loved him too much and instead he
killed her and then he became the new master. Buffy! she admonished herself,
you are getting way carried away here.

          The truth was she didn't really think Angel would ever hurt her or
her friends or anybody who wasn't supremely evil.  The truth was that even if
he did she had a feeling she'd still be in love with him.  The simple truth
was she loved him and nothing else mattered, not really when you really
thought about it.  He wasn't a real vampire; he had a soul.  It wasn't even
that ugly when his face turned vamp, once you got used to it.  It looked kind
of wild and animalistic in an exciting kind of way.  On other vamps it was
ugly but for Angel it was more of a badge of courage.  It was a reminder that
he had to fight against himself constantly.  That he had kept the demon at
bay for a century and that he would continue to do so.  Buffy felt the trust
born from her love, a trust that would accept no possibility of Angel turning
evil.  He was strong enough to stay good.  He had to be.  And if she was
wrong, well she was willing to take that risk.

           She pulled on a sweater and climbed out her bedroom window a
little amazed at what she was doing.  She was marching out of her house in
the middle of the night to look for his apartment.  She had to tell him right
now.  She had to tell him that none of it mattered, nothing was real but
their love.  So she walked purposefully until she reached the Bronze, then
she began to wander somewhat aimlessly among the apartment buildings in the
"bad" side of town.  She should be able to sense him if she got close enough.
 A lance of pain shot through her side and she knew a vampire was near,
whether it was Angel...well that was another question.  She spun lightly on
the balls of her feet, her eyes constantly searching,  her hand on the stake
she had stuffed in her pocket.

          "Show yourself!" she called.  The evil in this vamp felt too strong
to be Angel.  Anxiously she peered into the darkness.  A shadow crept slowly
along the wall behind her.  Then it stepped away from the wall and pounced.
 As it attacked the ridges of the vampire face stood out in the harsh light
of a nearby streetlamp.  Buffy heard her attacker as he leapt and spun to
face him.  His momentum carried him forward and she fell to the floor heavily
with him on top of her.  Stuggling against his vise-like grip she finally
freed herself by throwing him against the wall.  He was only stunned for
 moment and quickly charged her again, but this time she was ready.  She
easily sidestepped his attack and plunged the stake into his back.

            Her breathing slowed as the adredaline pumping through her blood
began to lessen.  "Nothing like a midnight slay to keep a girl on her toes,"
she muttered to herself.  Well at least she had managed to get her mind off
Angel for a few minutes.  Now to find that apartment.  An hour of sneaking
around every apartment near the Bronze turned up nothing.  He must not be
home, she thought.  Sighing she began the long trek home, or maybe it just
seemed long.  This was not turning out to be one of her best nights.

(to be continued)







-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail]
Subject: BUFFYFIC: The Sighing Game (2/3)
Date: 18 Jul 1997 18:27:14 -0400 (EDT)



Disclaimer: None of the characters in the Buffyverse belong to me..they
belong to Joss Wheadon, Mutant Enemy, maybe some other people none of whom
are me.
This is the second part of the Sighing Game, it is from Angel's point of view
and it takes place at the same time as part one...there are some spoilers,
lots of introspective brooding, Buffy/Angel romance..I think you get the
picture.

The Sighing Game (part 2)
by: Rebecca Carefoot

Angel stared blankly at the wall of his apartment.  A stake through
the heart could not possibly hurt this much.  To see her, so
beautiful, so sad.  It tore him to pieces.  To know that she
felt the same way he did and yet it could not be.  To be one of
those doomed lovers that he had always despised, one of a fated
couple.  It stung.  To know that over 200 years of love and
loss was no shield.  To hold her close and feel her stripped
away.  It hurt like nothing else he had ever felt in his life.

    Like nothing but the moment of conscience reawakened.
The guilt of a  hundred year killing spree across the span of
the entire world, the deaths he had caused, the joy he had felt
in killing.  In that one crystalline moment it had all come
rushing into him.  As his soul was returned, he had almost
destroyed himself.  He would have burned himself to death in
the sun's bright rays.  He would have done anything to escape
the guilt.  But he had found another way.  He had found solace
in killing them.  In destroying all the vampires he could.  He
fought the demon within himself and he fought the demons
outside as well.  So far he was winning, he had made himself
into a killing machine.  The guilt was buried, the pain was
buried, every emotion was hidden beneath a burning desire to
kill them all.  Angel had had it all figured out.  Once he got rid
of all of them he would be at peace and he would slip away.  A
stake to his own heart wouldn't be such a hard thing to do.  It
would all be over so quickly.  It was the perfect escape.

    But then she had come to Sunnydale to fight the
vampires, to fulfill her destiny.  Beautiful Buffy, so young
and so perfect.  At first he had seen her only as an ally.  A
way to kill the vampires faster.  Angel thought she might have
a better chance at killing the Master than he would.  After all
she was the one girl in all the world with the power to stop
the forces of evil.  But how many times had he heard that, too
many.  There was always a new "one girl in all the world" and
yet the Master lived.  Still there was a chance and
any vampire she killed would be one less for him.

    So he warned her that first week.  He followed her into
an alley.  And she surprised him by knocking him on his ass.
He thought that was when he first started falling in love with
her.  He hadn't been surprised in such a long time.  It was a
good feeling, a human feeling.  She was so suspiscious and for
some reason he found that charming.   The way she spoke back to
him, she wasn't afraid, or if she was she hid it so well.  He
gave her the cross, silver.  He had worn it when he had first
had his soul returned.  He had needed something to help him
fight the demon and the pain of that cross helped him to
gain the self control he needed to keep from feeding off warm
blood.  He still wore a cross sometimes, gold.  It was much
smaller but it helped to calm the urges.

    He began to watch her, sometimes offering hints and
help; but mainly staying in the shadows.  He saw her wear the
cross sometimes and it made him feel connected with her
somehow.  He knew that she couldn't truly love him, not if she
knew what he really was.  But seeing her wear that cross it
was like she was his.  It was as if she cared about him.

    He remembered the night when he had given her his
jacket.  The leather one.  He really didn't need it, vampires
didn't feel cold.  She seemed to like it, in fact she wore it
pretty often.  That made him feel good too.  It made him feel
like she carried him with her everywhere she went.  He imagined
to himself that she felt the same way he did.  That she
fantasized about him, that when she closed her eyes at night
all she could see was his face, that she wore the jacket
because she could imagine it being on his skin.  He told
himself that he was a fool, that he was acting like an
overly hormonal teenager.  It had to be a crush, but it was
so ridiculous.  He was old enough to know better.

    Then that night he had followed her from the Bronze
and they had had their run in with The Three.  It had been
close.  He had thought that they were done for when one
of the three extremely strong vampires had slashed him across
the ribs.  He was embarrassed to say that he was almost glad
that he would die with her.  But they had survived and she
had invited him into her house, a sacred priveledge
he certainly hadn't expected.

    She had bandaged his wound.  He hoped she didn't
realize what her touch did to him.  His flesh prickled with
her nearness.  It took all his self-control to keep from
pulling her near and kissing her.  He hid all day in her closet,
hiding from her mom he told her, but it was from the sun he hid.
And then she brought him some dinner...a little plateless she said.
He didn't mind that, but it was also a lot bloodless.  Poor girl she
had no idea what she was getting into.  He decided then to hide it
all from her, to just leave and never come back.

       But she started mumbling about her diary, thinking he had
read it.  His heart soared as he slowly realized that she cared for
him.  He began his speech about having to leave but his heart
wasn't in it.  His heart was with her.  And he had blurted out that
part about wanting to kiss her.  Then the incredible, the impossible
had happened.  They had come together like the crashing of the waves
on the shore, an inevitability.  Their lips had met in the kiss to end all
kisses.

         In the midst of his joy, Angel felt his face begin to change.
He fought it, but it was too late.  He stared in horror at the fear and
hatred he saw reflected in her eyes and her scream.   He threw
himself out the window and ran into the night.  But she hadn't had
the will to kill him, she seemed to understand.   At the Bronze when
they fought he could tell that she still cared for him just as he cared
for her.

         And then they had met for their last kiss, the most painful and
wonderful kiss of his life.  The world became that kiss, nothing else
mattered.  As she walked away he could feel his flesh sizzling where
her cross had imprinted itself on his skin.  But that pain was nothing to
the anguish he felt watching her walk away.

          So now here he was, sitting alone in his apartment.  Unable to
keep his mind off her.  Her face filled his mind, her smell filled his
nostrils.
Angrily he jumped up from the bed and threw a chair against the wall,
snarling.  He couldn't stand it, he had to see her.  He had to hear her
voice.
He rushed out the door barely taking the time to grab a jacket.  He
walked the streets to her house filled with an urgency that he could not
understand.  Nothing mattered but her, nothing had ever mattered but her



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail]
Subject: BUFFYFIC: The Sighing Game (3/3)
Date: 18 Jul 1997 18:32:54 -0400 (EDT)

Disclaimer: I think everyone knows I own no part of Buffy or her world.  Go
ahead and rub it in. Thanks a lot! Anyway I am making no money, probably just
going to get a lot of criticism out of this so don't sue.  Joss Wheadon, the
WB, and Fox are the rightful owners I believe.
This is part three (everyone cheers).  The other two parts happened at the
same time and were from the perspectives of Buffy and Angel respectively.
 This part is when the parallel lines meet (impossible you say..not if they
are story lines:).
Hope it's been fun for everyone...see you next time I decide to write
something.
Once again sorry for any typos

The Sighing Game (part 3)
by: Rebecca Carefoot

       Angel walked slowly back towards his apartment.  He felt like crawling
into a hole in the ground and just lying there for a hundred years.  This had
turned out to be a horrible night.  He stared up at the moon, it was full
tonight; so full he couldn't believe it didn't just fall right out of the
sky. His eyes on the sky he bumped heavily into someone.

        "I'm so sorry," he muttered distractedly.

        "Well you should be!" he heard a dear voice say.  "I really like
these shoes and you stepped all over them."

         "Buffy?!" he exclaimed, stopping the girl as she turned away.

         "Angel," she whispered turning slowly to face him.  It was true.
 After all that looking she had just gone and bumped into him.  I guess
that's what they call fate, she thought dreamily as she drank in the sight of
him.  He stood uncertainly on the sidewalk, unsure of his place in her heart.
 Well she would show him his place, she thought as she embraced him tightly.

           Immediately his arms encircled her and their lips met.  His kiss
left her heart pounding and she stood dazzled in his arms.  This was what she
had been dreaming of and Angel did not disappoint.  Their lips met again and
she felt the ground sway under her.  But Angel's strong arms held her tight
and she felt safe.

            Angel held her close, as if he would never let go.  In between
kisses he stole glances at her face.   The look in her eyes was full of love,
and her mouth turned up in a smile when she caught him staring at her.

            "Angel," she said and his heart raced to hear those lips say his
name.  "We have to go somewhere a little more private."

             "Why?" he murmered. "I don't care who sees us."

             "That's because you don't have to deal with all the people who
live in this town."  She gently touched his face as she said, "Come with me."
  She led him to the top of a secluded hill and they sat together looking at
the stars.  He held her in his arms and she thought she had never been more
happy in her whole life.  The dark seemed warm and the stars were jewels in
the moon's crown.  They sat in comfortable silence.  There was no need for
words, but finally Buffy spoke.

              "I told you I'd see you around," she said happily.

              "What were you doing out so late anyway," Angel asked.  "Isn't
it way past your bedtime?"  She slapped him lightly.

              "Ha, ha Mr. I'm 200 and something years older than you."

              "You must be one of those girls who goes for older guys, "
Angel teased.

              "Yeah, you're the first date I've had in months who isn't a
skeleton.  It's just so hard to find well preserved two hundred and forty
year olds these days."  Angel laughed at her comments.  "It's nice to hear
you laugh." she said.  "You should do it more often."

               "Sometimes it's hard for me to laugh, there's so much sadness
it seems like there's no room for laughter."  Buffy touched his chest over
the spot where his heart was.
               "You have so much pain here," she said sadly.  "I feel almost
guilty that my life has been easier than yours."  He covered her hand with
his.

                "Don't feel guilty," he said.  "You make me happy, and
besides you have plenty of problems in your own life."

                 "Nothing I can't handle," she said leaning towards him for a
kiss, "with a little help from my Guardian Angel."  She looked at his face
for a moment.  "Angel?" she began, "I have a favor to ask."

                 "Anything you want."

                 " Show me your true face."  Angel started to protest but
Buffy stopped him with a kiss.  "I need to see it."  Sighing he agreed.
 Buffy watched closely as his face changed.  She looked at the familiar
visige of a vampire but she felt none of the hatred the face usually brought
with it.  Deliberately she grabbed the back of Angel's head and pulled him to
her.  She kissed him as deeply as she knew how, telling him without words
that she loved him, every part of him.  When they broke the kiss Angel pushed
back a lock of her hair.

                "It's going to be hard," he said.

                "I know," she answered simply.  They both sighed, willing to
try for the sake of love.

The End

comments? Lady [e-mail]






-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail]
Subject: BUFFYFIC: The Weapon:  Part IV/?
Date: 21 Jul 1997 00:36:40 -0400

Title: The Weapon
Rating: G
Summary:  Buffy and SuperXander rejoin the group, and the team makes a
discovery.
Disclaimer:  This story is mine.  Mine mine mine mine mine!  Giles, Young
Xander, Willow, Ms. Calender, Buffy, and Angel belong to Joss Whedon,
Mutant Enemy, and 20th Century Fox.  The X-Files are TM & C Chris Carter
and Ten-Thirteen.

*****

"So Giles," shouted Buffy, as she and Xander entered the library, "find
anything useful yet."
"I'm afraid not," replied the librarian, "most of our efforts have been
fruitless, at least so far."
"But we're trying." said a voice from deep within the stacks.

Buffy smiled as the source of that voice stepped into the light.

"Angel." she sighed.
"Hey." he replied, as he walked towards the new arrivals.  He leaned down,
and lighted a kiss upon Buffy's lips.  She held her breath for seconds
after they parted, wanting to savor him for as long as possible.
"Hey Angel." said Xander, extending his hand to the vampire.
"Xander?" said Angel questioningly, as he accepted the man's handshake.
"Yeah, it's me.  I guess I have changed quite a bit huh?"
"I'll say."
"Angel," continued Xander, "I've had a *lot* of time to think about this,
and I just wanted to say I'm sorry.  I treated you like an enemy, when all
you were guilty of was trying to help Buffy, and loving her.  I was a
hot-headed punk, and I was wrong.  Friends?"
"Friends." replied Angel, firmly shaking the man's hand.  He then released
Xander's hand, and went back into the stacks.
"Hey," said Buffy, when she realized someone was missing, "where's Willow?"
"Oh," replied Giles, "she went home.  Apparently her home computer system
is better suited to this kind of... investigation.

*****

Willow sat at her PC, furiously typing away.

"Hmm," she said to herself, "what's this?  FBI, classified... the X-Files?
Records of paranormal activity, supernatural phenomenon... and UFOs?  Now
this looks promising.  Time to activate my worm..."

Willow activated the program, and began to burrow through the FBI's
security system.

"Nothing's gonna stop me from saving Xander," she thought, firmly, "nothing."

*****

All eyes turned towards the library entrance, as another figure entered the
room.

"Hey Rupert," said Samantha Calendar, "I found something that might help in
my coven's archives--" she paused when she saw Buffy.  "Oh," she said, "hi
Buffy."  Then her eyes turned to Xander.  "And this," she said, as she
moved towards him, "must be SuperXander."
"Yeah," he replied, smiling, "that's me."
"My how we've grown." she said, as she ran her finger along his bicep.
"Ms. Calendar--"
"Call me Sam."
"Sam, we've really gotta get back to the matter at hand."

As if to back Xander up, the library's fax machine began whirring.  Giles
rushed over to it, and snatched the first sheet of paper up, as a second
began to come out of the machine.

"It's from Willow," he said, as his eyes scanned the page, "apparently,
she's gotten into -- oh my."
"What is it Giles?" asked Buffy.
"This is from the FBI.  Confidential documents from something called... the
*X*-Files?  Some sort of chronicle of paranormal phenomena."
"Someone's been naughty..." muttered Xander.
"Yeah Giles, that's great, but is it useful?"

Giles snatched up the second page as a third began to spew from the machine.

"Yes," he replied, "I think it will!  There's full records here of many
unusual disappearances identical to Xander's!  All the circumstances,
etc... the only thing that's not here is the spell to open a portal!"
"I think," said Angel, as he came out of the stacks toting a hefty tome, "I
may have solved that one."

Giles rushed over to Angel as he slammed the book down on the table.

"Here," said Angel, as he pointed to the page, "a full record of the spells
and rituals the Master used in his attempt to open the Hellmouth."
"Yes," said Giles, his eyes lighting up as he poured over the page, "I
think this is it!  With this book, and the information Willow sent, we
should be able to open a portal to Purgatory!"
"Great!" said Buffy, elated.  "I'll head home for supplies, I have a
feeling we're gonna need 'em.  And I'll call Willow from there, to tell her
what's up."
"Good." replied Giles.  "Samantha," he said, turning to Ms. Calendar, "take
the book, and see if you have the spell ingredients at home."
"Right." she replied, as she hefted the tome up, and rushed out the door.
"Xander, Angel, if you would, help me in setting up the library for the
spell?"

The two men nodded in agreement.

"Good," he said, "I just hope all this trouble is worth it.  This may not
work."
"It'll work," said Xander, without a hint of doubt, "It'll work."

*****

Buffy came rushing into the library, her bag of tricks slung over her
shoulder.  The room was filled with the smell of burning incense, and there
were candles, gems, and various other objects positioned about the room.
As she surveyed the area, she caught sight of Angel, Xander, Giles, and Ms.
Calender.

"Hey," she asked, as she plopped into a chair, "where's Willow?"
"She said she had a few things to grab before she left."

Suddenly, the doors of the library flew open, and a figure entered the room.

"What the--" shouted Xander, and then suddenly, he fell silent.

There stood the meek, shy, and caring Willow Rosenburg.  Her hair was
pulled back into a tight braid.  She wore what looked to be combat
fatigues, along with heavy black boots.  At each of her hips hung a
sidearm, both of which appeared to be military issue.  Accross her chest
was an ammo bandoleer, and in her hands was a *very* large shotgun.

"OK," she said grimly, "let's go."

*****

End Part 4

*****

People on the Bronze were clamoring for tough Willow a week or so ago.
Well, here ya go....

--Viashino, Master of Unexpected Twists--




-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Anya <[e-mail]>
Subject: BUFFYFIC: Gone...1/3
Date: 21 Jul 1997 10:29:38 -0400

Gone...
by Anya
[e-mail]

Author's Preface: This story is in response to the re:Xander thread on
the Plantex list, and was inspired COMPLETELY by Cat's innoculous simple
little statement of :
"Well I _would_ like Xander and buffy to be together.... Under two
conditions... that Angel dissapear and that Willow dissapear."

Disclaimer: The characters listed below are the property of Joss Whedon,
Warner Bros and co.  No infringment is intended.

********************************************************

Part One

Buffy Summers bounded up the school steps, eager to race into
Sunnydale High's dim, dull and dreary library.  School wouldn't
begin for another week, but the Slayer knew that her Watcher
would already be firmly entrenched in his recently restructured
library.  It was a peanut-butter and jam thing, you just didn't
anticipate the one without the other.

The late August sun streamed down on her blonde head, it's golden
brillance unobscured in a cloudless sky.  The trees were a rich
green around her, bird's chirping optimistically within their
branches and the entire world seemed fresh, clear and vibrantly
alive.   Pausing to inhale deeply, Buffy felt her smile widen in echo
to her soul's  delight with life.  Humming contentedly, she pushed
the school doors open.  Nothing could bring her down today.

                   ***********************************

Giles sat wearily at the table, looking around himself with blank,
dismayed confusion.  He had never felt alone before, not during his
childhood or during the solitary years alone as a Watcher awaiting
his Slayer.  But, the Slayer had brought some special people into his
life, and they had filled a gap he hadn't even realized existed.

Looking at the computer in the corner, he could still clearly picture
Willow sitting there, her crooked smile twirking the corners of her
mouth.  Behind her lurked the ghost image of Xander, peering
down over her shoulder and silently teasing her.

Who would have thought that Giles would miss the sound of
children teasing one another?  And what he wouldn't give to see
those two tease one another again.

But they never would.  Not now.

Disgusted with his self-pity, Giles lurched from the chair, and
stomped over to his office, intending to grab one of a zillion
volumes of Prophecies to stupify his brain.  Hand raised to
the door, he froze as  another mental picture, this time of Angel
sneaking up behind him in the office, flashed through his brain.

Angel, the vampire with a soul and a conscience.  Angel, who had
helped Giles decipher prophecy's and fought so hard  to avert them.
The dark haired young-appearing man who held Buffy's heart and
been a true ally, bringing as much aid as he could.  Giles could still
see the agony in Angel's eye, and once again felt the overwhelming
empathy for the vampire.  They had tried so hard, and yet, they had
paid such a price...

"Enough!" Giles shouted at himself.  "This is ridiculous...I can't be
constantly haunted by these memories..I HAVE to stay HERE!"  He
punctuated his frustration by slamming his fist into the door.

"Woah!  Not enough coffee, or tea, or whatever you Brit's drink for
caffeine..this morning!"  Buffy brightly intoned behind him.  Giles
was slightly more rumpled than she had left him four weeks ago,
but, still intact.  She smiled cheerfully.

Giles spun around to face his Slayer. "Buffy." He mumbled.
Absently, and rather haphazardly, he tugged his glasses off and ran
his hand through his hair.   He seemed to disappear into some dank
corner of his mind, before returning suddenly.  "Uh..I....ah, that
is..Hello.  H--how was your, uh..vacation?"

Buffy's forehead creased with bemusement.  "My vacation was
excellent.  Very restful.  I highly recommend it, for you in
particular, and the world in general."

"That's nice."  Giles pushed his office door open, practically
bolting in, grabbing a book at random, and racing out.  As if
outracing demons.

Buffy felt her lips twist as she tried to repress a giggle.  Her happy
euphoria couldn't even be dimmed by Giles.  Trailing after him
with a bounce in her step, she spun a chair around and straddled it.

"Where's Willow?  You seen her recently?"  The question popped
out of nowhere, one of a million social questions that Buffy had
percolating in her brain.

Giles response was more spectatular.  He entirely missed the chair
he was about to sit in.   Buffy jumped up to help him up, only now
beginning to get suspicious of his behaviour.

"Well, Giles?  Have you seen her?  Or, how about Xander or
Angel?"  Buffy prodded.

"N-nno.  I haven't seen Xander.  I...is he back from his holidays as
well?"  Giles skipped past the former and the later for the one in the
middle.  At least that was a question he could honestly answer.

"Should be."  Buffy resituated herself on the chair, her chin rested
on her forearms  across the high back.  "He left before me, and was
supposed to be back before me."

"Oh."  The answer was halfhearted, and more than slightly
disinterested.   The Watcher instead focused his gaze on the book,
silently cursing the foolish haste that made him grab it.  Aesop's
Fables, in their original germanic text.  Somehow, he doubted he'd
get any great pearls of wisdom out of this.

Buffy gave a little grunt at him, his head shot up.  "So, I answered
the Xander question for YOU," she stressed.  "How about you
tackle the Willow question for me?"  She levelled a sweet
saccharine smile at him.

Frustration , anger and dismay flooded him, and it raced like
shadows across his features, despite the best effort to contain it.
" I can't."

Buffy let a little frown mar her face.  "Can't or won't?"  She leaned
forward on the chair, her rear end lifted off the seat.  "Somethings
going on, Giles..and I want to know what."

Giles stared at the hard eyes of the Slayer.  In his worst imaginings,
he didn't think this would get as ugly as he now feared it would.
The promise he had made again asserted itself firmly in his brain,
and he shied away from his desire to just tell the truth.

He opened his mouth, prepared to deliver a total false account of
his interactions with Willow.

The library door slammed open.  "She's GONE!"  Xander's bellow
was filled with pain.  The boy came into their view.  He was
breathing heavy, as if he had run the entire way, and tear-trails
marked along his face.  "Willow's gone.  Her parents say she
disappeared two weeks ago....they went to the police, and
everything..and they had to...they think she's..."  Xander stopped,
taking a deep breath.  He extended a clenched hand, a slim sheet of
paper crumpled within that firm grip.  "They gave me a note she
left me..if she were to...they..she..with all the accidents that happen
around here, the cops said she might be d-ddead."

End Part One

Comments, criticism and general thoughts accepted!



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Anya <[e-mail]>
Subject: BUFFYFIC: Gone...2/3
Date: 21 Jul 1997 10:29:42 -0400

Gone...
by Anya
[e-mail]

Disclaimer: The characters mentioned below are the property of Joss
Whedon and Warner Bros.  No infringement is intended.
*******************************************************

Part Two

Giles silently watched Buffy and Xander as they struggled to deal
with their pain, fears and grief.  Xander's announcement had
devastated Buffy, just as Giles had feared it would.  And as much as
Giles wanted to offer them some comforting words of hope, he
couldn't.

The two bewildered and hurt teens huddled close on the sofabed in
Giles' office.  Their eyes, one set just filled with pain, the others
reddened with tears, pinned to the Watcher, and those gazes felt
like knives into him.  "It's like they know I'm keeping the truth
from them."  The Watcher silently mused, turning so that his back
faced them.

His own pain was no less, and in many ways, was greater.  He had
failed Willow, and in doing so, failed Buffy.  How would she react
when she found out Angel was gone too?  The Slayer needed
emotional stability to function well, and this tragedy could very
well rob her of the calm she needed.

All the preparation, the studying, the researching he had done, and
it had all been fruitless.  Willow had suffered so greatly, and her
sacrifice had been made for Buffy, as had Angel's.   Giles''s
sacrifice had been the promise Willow had extracted from him.  At
the time, it seemed to be so little, so pointless, but now, as he faced
her friends, he began to see why she had apologized for asking it.

"What happened, Giles.  You MUST know something?"  Buffy's
whisper was fair near desperate.  "Willow's not dead...is she?  I
mean...they..."  Her voice broke off, and Giles could *hear* the
tears she was fighting back.  "They didn't..." The voice dropped to
a squeak of a whisper. "...get her...did they?"

Reaching down, he picked up the thin leather book.  The black
leather should have been worn completely, the number of times his
hands had picked at it these past two weeks.  It  was the only out
Willow had left him, before she ...left.

"I'm sorry, Buffy."  Giles turned back to them.  "I'm sorry for both
of you.  Willow...she...disappeared, as Xander said, two weeks ago.
From what I've been able to determine, her disappearance was not
the result of vampires." *No, the vampires had interfered long
before Willow had vanished forever.* His mind added silently.

Xander dropped his head into his hands, shoulders shaking softly.
"God...god!  Where is she?"

"Gone."  Giles mentally answered.  His promise stayed his tongue.

Buffy reached out to wrap her arm around Xander's shoulders.  Her
own grief repressed for her friends needs.  "Maybe Angel could
help?"  She offered softly, knowing Xander's dislike for the
vampire, but also sensing he would accept whatever aid, from
whatever source, if it would answer what had happened in
Sunnydale two weeks ago.

Across the room, Giles grimaced.  His hands turned the book over
endlessly in agitation.  Schooling his features, he saw Xander nod,
and begin to stand.

Buffy stood too, her eyes catching the rumpled cream envelope
Xander had dropped earlier.  Scooping, she swept it up into her
hands, turning it over to see Willow's crisp strokes marking the
envelope cleanly.

"Xander..did you read this yet?"  She asked, trying very hard to be
sensitive to him, but needing to scream her own grief at the same
time.

The Slayerette shook his head negatively.  He reached out for it,
and Buffy handed it over.   For a long moment, he stared at his
name on the envelope, before turning it over and quickly ripping it
open.   Pulling out the handwritten missive, he swallowed hard, and
unfolded it.

"Dear Xander,

If my parents are giving this to you, then I guess the worst really did
happen.  I can't be too serious about it right now, 'cause it'll make
me hysterical.  Living on the Hellmouth is quite the psychological
challenge, isn't it?

I'll just come out and say this.  I don't know how I died, I hope it
was quick, and painless, but I really didn't want to die.  There was
so many things I wanted to say or do first.  And I didn't want to
leave my best bud, Alexander Harris.

I never said this to you, 'cause I was sure that I would die waiting
for your response,  (I won't have to worry 'bout that now...so..) but
I love you.  I always did, and I hope I always will.

You've been my best friend, despite everything.  You believed in
me, supported me, teased me, played with me when we were kids,
you were my big brother, my confidante, my enemy, my hero, and
the most wonderful person alive.  And I loved you.  I was always so
scared to say that, 'cause I need you around, and you cared about
someone else.

I hope you can forgive me for leaving you.  And I hope you can
remember me with a smile.  Right now, it's probably very painful,
and I wish I could hug you and take all the pain away, but I can't.

I'm sorry Xander, I'm so very sorry.  Please, be well, live well and
be happy, for me?  I love you now, and I'll love you later.

Forever,
Willow

P.S.  I even forgive you for the Beach Blast Barbie thing!"

Xander's howl filled the room, and he collapsed to the floor
pounding his fist down, shoulder's heaving. "Noooooooo!"  The
grief was so raw, and so anguished, he could feel nothing but pain.

Buffy grabbed the note from a lax hand, quickly reading it.  Tears
filled her own eyes.  Sitting down beside Xander, she pulled him
into her arms, rocking him like a small child, and smoothing the
hair back from his face.

Giles watched silently, the book in his hands no longer moving, but
clenched in whitening knuckles.   He knew what was in that letter,
from Xander's response.  In retrospect, Willow should have
destroyed it.  If the boy discovered the truth, it would make the
words of that letter even more painful.

And Giles had to believe that despite the precautions that had been
taken, and the promise he had made, that they would discover the
truth.  It would hurt, but also give them hope.

And having hope was better than having nothing.
*******************************************************

End Part Two
Comments, criticism and general thoughts are welcomed.



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Anya <[e-mail]>
Subject: BUFFYFIC: Gone... 3a/3
Date: 21 Jul 1997 10:29:50 -0400

Gone....  3a/3
by Anya
[e-mail]

The characters mentioned below are the property of Joss Whedon, Warner
Bros, and co. No infringement is intended.

********************************************************
Part Three

Buffy wandered around the deserted apartment in stoney silence.
Her face set in a mask of stoney calm, but the eyes were haunted.
The furniture was all gone, and dust had settled on the concrete
floors.  It was a barren, lifeless place now, although, nothing living
had dwelt there before.

Aimlessly, she drifted into the bedroom, then the bathroom, and
final the kitchenette.  The fridge was unplugged and properly
defrosted, and the water disconnected.   The former resident was
not coming back.

Anger seethed through her, a rage like nothing she had ever known
before, turning swiftly, her foot smashed through a cupboard,
weakening the entire counter structure so that the one side
collapsed entirely.  And still she felt fury.

"WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED!"  Her scream echoed off the
walls around her.  There was nothing and no one to provide an
answer.    Closeing her eyes tightly, she shook her head slowly, and
looked down at her clenched fist.  "What happened to them?" She
whispered, sinking down to her knees.

The grief she had repressed for Xander's benefit overwhelmed her
now.  Before, it had been containable, she had hope that Angel
could help them find Willow, or prove she wasn't dead ...they could
still save her.  But now, even hope was gone, and with it, Buffy's
heart.

The attraction she had felt for Angel was the one constant in her
universe she had denied so faithfully.  Or, at least, had tried to.
They hadn't become overly close, that was their mutual decision,
and yet, somehow, she had fallen in love with him.  And never told
him.

"I envy Xander..." She realized, wiping away a tear from her face
with a dusty hand.  Despite the pain he was feeling, at least Xander
knew that Willow loved him.  And that Willow forgave him for not
returning the same level of devotion.

Buffy didn't even have that.  Another wave of anger swept through
her, a fury directed at herself, at fate, and only a little at Angel.
She
ached to cry like Xander had, but the anger wouldn't let her.  Later,
perhaps, but not now.

Throwing her head back in a silent scream, her fist pounded into
the floorboards by the cupboard.  It buckled suddenly, a long stretch
of board flying across the room in response the the inertia against it,
and startling Buffy back to her senses.

Looking at the hole, she cringed to think what the landlord would
say.  She scrambled across the floor to grab the wood, and returned
to replace it, or at least to cover the whole.  Examining the edges of
the opening,  a small white coilbound book caught her eye.
Quickly, and with a squeamish grimace, she fetched it out of the
hole, half expecting a rat or something to jump out of there too.

Buffy slid the piece of wood back ontop the hole, startled to see
how well it fit.  "It's not broken!"  She realized.  "It's a panel for a
hiding spot!"   Grabbing the book again, she jerked it open.  Her
eyes briefly touched on the name on the inside cover before flying
wide.  "Oh.  My.  God."  She whispered.

Buffy licked her lips anxiously, and weighed down her options.
She could read it here, or take it to read with Xander.  Curiousity
ached in her, the desire for answers, but her compassion won out.
Closing the notebook, she left the apartment, turning on the
threshold for a final look before locking the door.

********************************************************

None of the parental units were at home at the Harris residence.  If
either of Xander's Mom or Dad had heard that Willow was
presumed dead, they would have never left their son alone.  But,
their ignorance gave Xander time to sink into a fabulous
depression.

Sitting in his the living room, he just stared at the letter in his
hands
unseeingly.  Willow had loved him, and he hadn't known.  She had
felt so much for him, and all he had done was rant and rave about
how crazy he was about Buffy.  He had practiced asking Buffy out
on Willow...how cruel was that?

And she had still loved him.

It made Xander want someone to hit him around for a few hours.
To give him a physical pain that matched the emotional.  She had
loved him, and had been so insecure she couldn't tell him in life.
She had LOVED him, for Christ sake.  She could have been that
part of his life that people always hoped for, a best friend and a
lover..the perfect other half!

And now, she was gone.  And he was alone.

Again.

Always.

His mind kept reminding him of what kind emptiness his life would
now have without Willow.  Jesse's death had been painful, he was a
bud.  But he hadn't been like Willow.  Willow was everything.  She
was his soul's sister, his pal, his study-buddy, the person he had
whispered all his secrets to, and who had held them for him.

And she was gone.  Forever.

It was self-pity, but he felt abandoned.  He wanted to be angry at
Willow, but couldn't, since he betrayed her first.  He had went
away when she needed him here.

And he hadn't even sent a post-card.  What kind of friend did that?
"A lousy one, that's what kind!" His mind yelled at him.  "One that
can even see the most incredible woman alive when she IS alive
and right in front of him!  A MORON!"

His head was once more in his hands, and shoulder's shook with
silent dry sobs.  "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry..forgive me, oh God..I'm
sorry!"

So lost was he within his pain, he didn't hear the door open and
close, and he didn't feel the arms slip around him.  It was several
minutes before Xander realized that Buffy was again holding him.
Her own eyes seemed red, and reflected much of the same pain he
felt.

"He's gone too." She whispered softly.  The 'he' was understood,
and despite Xander's long-standing dislike of Angel, he
instinctively knew that Buffy was hurting as much as he was.

He couldn't offer sympathy, it took all his strength to not fall apart
again.  Angel had been their only hope for answers.  If Giles knew
something, he wasn't forthcoming.  "What are we gonna do?"
Xander heard his voice break, and yet, didn't feel his ego protest it
with shame.  The ego was so trashed, it didn't exist anymore.

Buffy snuffled, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand.  "I...it
may be nothing, but I found this at Angel's apartment."  She pulled
the small notebook off the ground.  "I..I'm hoping it'll tell us
something.  I don't know how it got where it did, unless..."  Her
voice trailed off.  Forcing herself to stare directly into Xander's
eyes, she whispered, "It's Willow's journal."



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Anya <[e-mail]>
Subject: BUFFYFIC: Gone 3b/3
Date: 21 Jul 1997 10:29:55 -0400

Gone...3b/3
by Anya
[e-mail]

continued from 3a---------------

Buffy snuffled, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand.  "I...it
may be nothing, but I found this at Angel's apartment."  She pulled
the small notebook off the ground.  "I..I'm hoping it'll tell us
something.  I don't know how it got where it did, unless..."  Her
voice trailed off.  Forcing herself to stare directly into Xander's
eyes, she whispered, "It's Willow's journal."

                       *****************************
August 12, 1997

Dear Diary,

I can't believe Xander and Buffy have been gone two weeks!  It
feels like YEARS!   I've been so lonely, and so bored, I've taken to
helping Giles set the library back up.  They finished reconstruction
last week, and he's needed the help.

The new fixtures are amazing.  And Giles even made sure that the
new computer had every gadget I've every dreamed of.  I think it's
his way of ensuring that I do his computer research for him!  Oh
well, whatever the reason, I love my new toy!  (Did I say mine?
Oops!  I meant, the school's new toy.  That's right! ;-) )

Well, I guess that's it, diary.  Life's pretty boring, without Buffy
around.
Bye!

                       *****************************
August 14, 1997

Dear Diary,

I hope someone will be able to read this one day.  I hope it's me,
and that I'll be able to laugh about all this.

But I can't right now.  I'm  scared.  I don't know what's happening
to me!

I left the library Monday night a little late.  Giles packed me with
holy water and a stake, despite the fact there's been no ACTIVITY
for three weeks.  We thought it was safe, and we were wrong.

I don't remember the who, just the what.  Four vamps grabbed me.
If it had been two, I'd have been okay.  But..it wasn't..and now..I..

I'm sorry..I can't do this!  I'm scared.  I'm so scared.  I don't
understand what's happening, Giles hasn't been able to find out
much about this...CAUSE IT'S NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE!

Angel is trying, but he doesn't know either.  If he hadn't found me
when he did, God knows what else Colin would have done to me.
God.  Oh, I do hope there is one.  And I hope He takes pity on me.

I'm so scared.  And I'm so alone.  I just want a chance to say
goodbye, and I'm not going to get it...am I?

                       *****************************
August 16, 1997

It's happened.  We rather suspected it would, and I'm surprised at
how calm I am.  Is this part of the changes?  Is this a real calm, or
artificial?

Am I losing my soul?

Angel says the blood in my system is artificially induced.  I can't
loose my soul 'cause I never accepted it.  He says it's the same
principle as a vampire needing 'invited' across a home's threshold.
Without acknowledgment and agreement, the demon has no power.
And he and Giles both agree that since the blood was forced into
me, and not by my ingesting it, a demon cannot enter my being.

So, why am I changing?  Why can't they answer that?  Why am I
having bloodlusts?

Why is my reflection fading?

                       *****************************
August 17, 1997

Dear Diary,

I have to leave.  I can't stay here.  I wanted to KILL that man.  I
ached to drain him entirely and hear his heartbeat stop!

What kind of monster am I becoming?  I didn't diary, I didn't even
touch him.  But I learned something horrible today.  If I hadn't had
supplies here, supplies that Angel has been providing, I would have
cheerfully ripped that poor man's throat out.

Angel says I'm wrong.  I don't 'change' like a vampire does.  My
features remain constant, and I can move easily within the sunlight.

Does that make me a supermonster then?  I can hunt during the day,
and my alleged prey would never suspect it?

I feel guilt, and fury at these urges.  I'm glad.  It means my soul
hasn't left..yet.  But it still might.

I hate Colin.  I hate him with all my being. And if I drink ANY
vampires blood, it will be his heartblood!

HE did this to me!  He captured me, he tortured me, he drained me
of all my blood!

And then he tried to make me drink his.  The little child-shaped
MONSTER!  He taunted me, said he'd make a creation the Slayer
could NOT slay.  Damn him.

He's right.  The Slayer will not slay me.  I'll do it.  It won't take
much to shove a stake through my own heart.  My willpower is still
mine, and my survival instinct is not so strong as to refuse my souls
desire.  I won't just leave Sunnydale, I'll leave this unholy
existence entirely. The way I should have in the first place.

I should have died.  I should have been allowed to die by that little
bastard.  I guess I'm living proof that you can make a vampire, of
sorts, by injecting blood directly into their stomach.

It's funny, I was never afraid of needles before then.  I am now,
although I'll never need another shot after tonight!

Angel and Giles are planning on doing more research tonight.
Works for me.  'Cause tonight, me and my stake are having a
bonding moment.

And I still won't have had the chance to say good bye.  I hope Buffy
and Xander will realize how much I love them, and that I'm doing
this to spare them even more pain.

I hope they forgive me.

And God, I hope you take me in.

Goodnight, and Goodbye.
Forever and Always,
Willow Rosenburg.


*******************************************************

They were both bawling by the end of the journal.  Horrified,
anguished and intensely saddened.  It was the confirmation of their
worst fears.  That Willow had died.  And it was compounded by an
even greater tragedy, she had died alone, by her own hand, and
intensely scared.

Closing the coil book gently, Buffy set it down with reverence on
the floor before standing.  Her eyes were puffy, and face strained,
but the set of her jaw spoke of purpose.

"Let's go Xander."  She said, her throat raw from all the crying.
"We have most of our answers, but...I want more.  And Giles' has
them."

********************************************************

He had been expecting them.  From the moment Buffy had left for
Angel's, Giles' had known she would return wanting answers, or
just plain comfort.   He hadn't been sure about Xander, but had
conceded it a likelihood.

They were showing wear from all the bad news.  Their faces were
far too haggard for their tender years, and the burden's on their
souls fair near shone through.   It was a burden Giles' was all too
familiar with, but could not lift from them.

He sat down heavily as they stalked over to him.  Buffy held out a
coil notebook as if it was proof.  Taking it from her, and flipping
quickly through it, he realized it was just that.

Proof of his compliance in a conspiracy of silence.

Sighing, he mentally apologized to Willow and Angel.  It was a
promise that he would be forced to break.  And in the long run, he
was sure that Willow would forgive him.

"She's not precisely dead."  He offered softly.  "She did try to stake
herself.  Angel stopped her."   Giles had been there, he had watched
in absolute horror as Angel raced to grab the stake from Willow's
hands.

It had taken the entire night to convince her of their plans.  And
another day and night to stage the evidence of her death.   After
that, the two of them and quietly left Sunnydale for Europe, and
hopefully the Rom.

It was Willow's fears for her soul that endangered her most.  So, if
a curse could restore Angel's soul, surely a blessing should anchor
Willows.

"She will never return here, Buffy, Xander.  Not in our lifetime."
They were sitting now, seeing the exhausted weariness in his face,
and hearing the pain in his voice.  "I couldn't find anything to
reverse what the Anointed One did to her.  And she can't live like
that, not here.  Not near you.  The love she bears for you both won't
let her become a constant reminder of what YOU will see as your
failure."

"You didn't fail her.  You never could.   Neither one of you."  Giles
sadly pinned his gaze on them both.  "Angel and I bear that
responsibility, not you."

"I should never have let her stay here as late as she did that night,
and Angel should have gone looking for her the moment we knew
she was missing."  His shoulder's slumped.  "We failed her.  And in
failing her, we owe her."

"Angel is with her.  He will not leave her.  The hope is to find
more of the Rom.  Perhaps they can save Willow.  If so, she'll
return.  Until then..."  The Watcher let his voice trail off.

"Until then, they are both lost to us."  Turning back to Buffy, he
extended the slim black book.  "This is my journal on those events.
You are free to read them.  It won't be gentle, or nice, but it is an
honest account."

Standing slowly, he let his hands rest flush on the table top, head
bowed.  "I promised Willow to keep this information from you.
Please, respect that I can tell you nothing more.  I have betrayed her
twice now, do not make me betray her three times."

The library was silent, as the Watcher left two sad, lonely friends to
grieve a lost third.

***********************The End**************************

<VBG> I know.  I left this finishing with NO RESOLUTION!  It's
cruel, and I feel no shame.

This entire brief story is the result on the "who would like to see
Xander with Buffy".  I can't picture it either, without Willow and
Angel being out of the scene.  Now they are, can you still picture it?

Cheers!
Anya



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail]
Subject: BUFFYFIC: "Synchronicity"--Introduction
Date: 21 Jul 1997 12:50:11 -0400

               "Synchronicity"--Introduction
                   by Katherine Gilbert

Okay, let me give you a brief introduction to the following
story.  It's a Buffy-VR.5 crossover ("Not original, I'll grant
you, but. . .").  It also follows up, sort of, on the events of
a previous VR.5 story of mine, "Pasts Imperfect" (if you'd like
a copy of this, write me, and I'll send it, or you can find it
at Worstwitch's VR.5 site).

As in Buffy (or VR.5), some violent things will happen here, but
you'll get almost nothing in the way of gory details.  You also
won't get any really strong language.  Consider this a PG or PG-14
(at the *absolute* furthest), if you like to be warned about such
things.

To catch you up on where the VR.5 people are (and, if you need
an introduction to VR.5, see below):  Sydney is out of her coma,
and she, Oliver, Sam, Duncan, Joseph, Nora, and the Keeper (Bill)
have been running from the Committee for two years now.  There
won't be too many allusions to my previous story (or another I'm
planning), so please be patient. :) Much of my characterization of
Sam, however, will come from my previous story (as we really
saw little of her in the tv show).

As far as Buffy goes, I've compiled together aspects of both the
film and tv Buffy (expect mentions of Hemery High and Merrick--her
previous Watcher, among other things).  The characters and setting
are tv Buffy, but I take bits of the movie as her background.
This is also set between the events of "Invisible Girl (Out of Sight,
Out of Her Mind)" and "Prophecy Girl."   Here, there are two days
between these two episodes; this story begins later on the day
IG ends and ends a few hours before the events of PG.

The characters in this story are not mine, and no copyright
infringement is intended.

Please send any comments to:  [e-mail].

Special thanks to my sister, Armida, for listening to the story
as it was in progress and for always encouraging me.


VR.5 INTRO. (Skip if you know it):

VR.5 is a computer realm which reads the electromagneticism of the
brain to create a very dream-like environment, where the person
running the session is open to all of the information in the mind of
anyone they take in, although the operator's mind is also open
to be searched (as the opening of the show says, "Anything in
your subconscious can be pulled into VR.5, anything in anyone
else's subconscious").  The session only takes a few seconds,
although it can seem like *much* longer (much like a dream).
The person who is taken in secondarily to VR.5 will not clearly
remember the session, however; they only know that the phone rang
and no one was there.  They are left with impressions only.  You
have to be retinal-scanned into the system to be able to run it
or remember.

The main operator of the system in the series is Sydney Bloom,
whose father created the system.  Also appearing in this story
with her is Oliver Sampson (played by Anthony Stewart Head--the
same actor who plays Giles, in case anyone didn't know).  Oliver
was once Sydney's Keeper--her protector--assigned to her by the
Committee.  The Committee is a shady, super-powerful group who
seem to have their fingers in all sorts of metaphorical pies.
They have a tendency to kill anyone who gets in their way.
Oliver was a Keeper as well as an agent for them (and a few
other unnamed espionage groups).

Sydney's fraternal twin sister, Samantha, was (along with their
father) kidnapped by the Committee and held for 17 years.  Duncan
is a childhood friend of both sisters.

Jackson Boothe, who will get mentioned here as well, was an
assassin (whether wholly for the Committee or freelance was never
entirely clear).  He was taken into VR.5 several times by Sydney,
who unwittingly helped him.  He ended up killing her first
friendly contact in the Committee (before Oliver)--Dr. Frank Morgan.

As I said earlier, this group is on the run from the Committee
now, which Oliver (obviously) no longer works for.

Hopefully, anything else you need to know will be covered in
the story.  Enjoy!



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail]
Date: 21 Jul 1997 13:09:18 -0600



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Virginia Eveland <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: BUFFYFIC: Gone 3b/3
Date: 21 Jul 1997 16:30:16 -0400

Anya, cruel is not sufficient!  Surely there will be some sequel?
Please? I can beg really really well....
--
Virginia Eveland [e-mail] UIN 1517244
Pretender,Slayerette, Bab5, X-Phile
SYX, AGML, LGW, BLA, OBSSE, GASP
Keeper of Giles' Inner Child
Keeper of Buffy's Three Gold Hoop Earrings
Keeper of Little Buffy's Dogeared Copy of 'Horton Slew a Who'
--
Visit the Buffy ICQ List
http://www.erols.com/dscully/buffy.htm
--



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Anya <[e-mail]>
Subject: BUFFYFIC: Gone... -A Challenge!
Date: 21 Jul 1997 22:09:44 -0400

A Challenge!

Hi!  This is primarily directed to those people who read my story
"Gone..." and were seeking a sequel.
I can't believe the volume of response this story evoked!  It blows me
away!  To all those who wrote, thank you.  All your comments meant a
great deal to  me, and I tried to answer most of them!

I have no intention of writing a sequel to that story.  Sorry!  In my
mind, it ended just where I wanted it to.  It was a sudden inspired
response to the "I would like to see Buffy with Xander, but ONLY with
Willow and Angel gone" line of thought produced by Cat!  I wasn't
interested in putting Buffy with Xander, but, I couldn't resist removing
Willow and Angel. So I did.  However, as I said, the responses craving
follow-up to 'Gone...' were overwhelming, so..I thought of something
rather different to try.

I would like to set a Challenge for all those who would like to
participate.  And the Challenge is: to write a sequel to Gone...  Write
it any which way you wish, but take the story as I finished it, and move
it to where you would like to see it go!

Unless you have objections, all responses to the Challenge will be
archived on my fanfic site (of course) in a 'Challenges' section.  If
you decide you'd like to try this, then please let me know.  I really
would like to see how this goes!

Cheers!
-Anya
[e-mail]
http://SlayerFanfic.alz.com



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Matthew Hammond <[e-mail]>
Subject: BUFFYFIC: Re: Gone
Date: 21 Jul 1997 22:27:25 -0700

A most excelent story! As a guy you'll be surprised at me saying this
 but this story brought a tear to my eye, a lump in my throat, and a
 acke in my heart! I fealt as if I was Xander or Buffy and my best freind
 had gone away due to a tragic sercumstance! Keep up the good work!
 I think You could have a future in writing. Weather it be story's movies
 or whatever. Hope we'll see more from you in the Future!
 --
 [e-mail]
 Keeper of Buffy's Quick Thinking and Ingenuity..........Matthew Hammond
 "Reality is a Crutch for People Who Can't Handle Science Fiction"
 Finaly my own page at http://www.angelfire.com/ca/estefazpage/index.html
 P.S. My picture is on my page!

--
[e-mail]
Keeper of Buffy's Quick Thinking and Ingenuity..........Matthew Hammond
"Reality is a Crutch for People Who Can't Handle Science Fiction"
Finaly my own page at http://www.angelfire.com/ca/estefazpage/index.html
P.S. My picture is on my page!



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Anya <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: BUFFYFIC: Re: Gone
Date: 21 Jul 1997 23:31:28 -0400

[e-mail] wrote:
>
> A most excelent story! As a guy you'll be surprised at me saying this
>  but this story brought a tear to my eye, a lump in my throat, and a
>  acke in my heart! I fealt as if I was Xander or Buffy and my best freind
>  had gone away due to a tragic sercumstance! Keep up the good work!
>  I think You could have a future in writing. Weather it be story's movies
>  or whatever. Hope we'll see more from you in the Future!
>  --

Hi!

Well, thank you very much!  I'm glad that Gone... was enjoyable, or
powerful enough to move you!

Actually, I'm surprised by how MANY people said I had them with tears in
their eyes as they read it!  And quite a few of those folks were males!
In a way, it's very flattering, since it means that story evoked a
tremendous amount of emotion, and had a grace to it to make that emotion
sincere.

I am planning on writing more, and actually, I have a novel that I'm
slowly working on.  Who knows, you may find yourself buying a book by me
from a real bookstore!

Cheers!
Anya



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Anya <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: BUFFYFIC: Re: Gone  OOPSY!
Date: 21 Jul 1997 23:33:08 -0400

I'm so sorry!

Me and my send button bonded too soon!  I was intending to send that
privately!  It will NEVER happen again!  Honestly!  I swear it!

--Anya



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: BUFFYFIC: "Gone"....
Date: 21 Jul 1997 23:41:21 -0400

Hachy-machy!  Girl, you are the queen of sorrow.  I think I'm gonna cry...
*sniffle*.  That was, quite possibly, THE saddest story I've ever read.  I
bow before the mistress of all angst.

As for your challenge, I for one, will not be taking it on.  First of all,
I really don't think I could write I sequal capable of doing your wonderful
piece justice.  Second, it's just not really my thing.  I specialize more
in the area of high fantasy/action, with the angst entwined.  Basically,
I'm saying I'm not good enough to take your challenge.  I'm not really sure
of anyone is.  "Gone" is, and I say this honestly, quite possibly the
*best* Buffy FanFic I've read so far.  Bravo.

Totally off this topic, I'm just wondering if anyone caught the teeny bit
of foreshadowing I did in "Pyromancer: Endgame" which connects to one of
the events in "The Weapon Part IV".  Anybody?

--Viashino, Crying his Eyes Out--




-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail]
Subject: BUFFYFIC: "Synchronicity" (1b/11)
Date: 23 Jul 1997 7:34:21 -0400

Introductions, etc. in (surprise, surprise) the Introduction.
I only repeat that these characters are not mine, and no
infringement of any sort is intended.  Please send any comments
to [e-mail].

*******************************************************************

                       Synchronicity (Part 1b)
                        by Katherine Gilbert

  About 15 minutes earlier, Sydney, Duncan, and Samantha had been
wandering the dark streets of Sunnydale looking for Oliver for about
45 minutes.  So far, they'd had no luck.
  As they got closer to the town's mortuary, however, they saw car
headlights approaching.  "Hey, what d'ya know?" Duncan commented.
"There is life in this `burg."
  The vehicle stopped about 20 feet away.  "That is one God-ugly
car," Sam noted before stopping to stare at the person who got
out of it.
  Sydney let out a sigh of relief.  "Oliver!" she called, as she
ran over to him.
  The man didn't seem to notice her, until she was very close.
He looked at her, a bit startled, and fingered the cross in his
pocket.  "Pardon?" he said.
  Duncan and Sam joined them.  Sam examined the car more closely.
"I thought you weren't going to steal a car here.  Why would you
pick such an obvious one?"
  "Hey, Oliver, that is a seriously ivory-tower outfit," Duncan
noted, looking at the man's wire-rimmed glasses, tweed pants and
jacket, check shirt, sweater vest, and mismatched tie.
  Syd smiled.  "He's dressed like this before," she noted, remembering
his previous travelling disguises.  She reached up to stroke the
maroon paisley scarf he had tucked in his jacket.  "I haven't seen
this before, though."
  The faux Oliver, who was more used to being addressed as Rupert
Giles, stepped back from her touch.  "Do I know you?" he asked.
He was trying to remember if this was some weird American holiday
--Halloween or April Fool's Day--one of those days when Americans
seemed to act even more strangely than they were usually wont to.
He didn't think it was.
  Sydney looked back at Duncan and Sam quickly.  She was getting
worried but was trying to hide it.  "Cut it out, Oliver," she
smiled.  "Don't play games."
  Giles eyed them all slowly.  They didn't *look* dangerous,
but looks were deceiving where evil was concerned.  Maybe, too,
they were the messengers Buffy was after tonight; there were only
supposed to be two, but one could never be sure about these things.
He pulled the cross out of his pocket and held it out at them.
  The three Americans just stared at him.  Sydney was getting
frightened.  "Oliver, what's wrong with you?"
  Duncan raised an eyebrow at him.  "I think you've seen one too
many Hammer horror films, Dr. Van Helsing," he muttered.
  "Um, sorry," Giles said sheepishly.  He was about to put the
cross away, when he heard growling from behind him.  He turned
with the cross, as a vampire came toward him.  The vampire reeled
back at the sight of the symbol.  "Run!" Giles yelled.
  The three Americans had been staring at the strange attacker,
but Sydney decided that flight probably was the best plan and
took off with Giles.  Duncan backed away.  Sam, however, pulled
out a gun.
  "No!" Giles called, stopping a bit behind her.  "It won't work!"
  Sam stared at him.  Giles could see that flight wasn't part of
her makeup.  "Here," he said, tossing a stake to her, "aim for
the heart."
  Sam was convinced that Oliver had lost his mind, but she took
the stake.  The attacker lunged toward her, past Duncan.  The
vampire had decided that Duncan would make too easy a meal.  Sam
looked like much more fun; he liked a challenge.
  "Grab his arms!" Sam yelled to Duncan, who was now behind the
vampire.
  Duncan, a bit tentatively, did so, as Sam ran toward the attacker
to build up momentum with her stake.  With a dim sort of pleasure,
she managed to stake the attacker in the heart.
  Duncan screamed, "Sam--no!" horrified to be part of a murder.
As soon as he got out the words, though, the attacker disappeared
in a shower of green, most of which got on him and Sam.  Duncan
blinked.
  "Okay," Sam said, turning to the man she thought to be Oliver,
"what the hell is going on here?"
  Giles swallowed and started to approach her, while Sydney stood
near him, stunned.  "It's a rather complex story," he began but
was distracted quickly by the sounds of gunfire and yelling.
Heart-rending terror took hold of him.  "Buffy," he whispered
before running in the direction of the noise.  His new companions
followed.

  By the time Giles and the Americans reached Oliver, Buffy, and
the others, the action was over.  Oliver was staring dumbfoundedly
at Buffy, when he saw Sydney running up to him.  He looked relieved.
"At least the entire world isn't insane," he thought.
  Sydney looked back at the man in tweed, then at her old protector.
"Oliver!" she called, running up to embrace him.
  Oliver breathed a sigh of relief.  "Sydney," he said, kissing the
top of her head before releasing her.
  Buffy raised an eyebrow.  This was very un-Giles, at least as far
as she knew.
  Giles, then, ran up to her.  "Buffy, are you alright?  We heard--
gunshots?"
  Buffy shook her head, staring at him.  "That was him," she said,
pointing at Oliver.  "Giles, what's going on here?  Who are they?"
  Giles turned to take in Oliver for the first time, as Oliver
released Sydney.  Their eyes met, and they both raised an eyebrow at
the other.  Then Giles answered Buffy's question:  "I haven't the
faintest idea."

[End of Part 1]



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail]
Subject: BUFFYFIC: "Synchronicity" (1a1/11)
Date: 23 Jul 1997 10:35:47 -0400

Arrgh!  Sorry, this is the 3rd time I've tried to post this.
Hopefully the parts will prove digestible this time.  Sorry for the
confusion.  Introductions, etc. in (surprise, surprise) the Introduction.
I only repeat that these characters are not mine, and no
infringement of any sort is intended.  Please send any comments
to [e-mail].

*******************************************************************

                       Synchronicity (Part 1a1)
                        by Katherine Gilbert

  It had been almost two years since they had started running from
the Committee.  In that time, they'd pulled off a few minor coups,
exorcised a few inner demons, and learned to work together better
as a team.  There had been some close calls and some truly
terrifying moments.  Even with their victories, though, the
Committee still survived; the labyrinth had only gotten deeper.
And they were still on the run.
  Memories, emotions were assaulting Sydney Bloom, as she paced
in her cheap motel room.  Oliver had left her to wait for her
sister and Duncan, who were scheduled to have arrived hours ago,
while he scoped out the town in search of a lead they had picked
up on--their reason for being here.  Hours had passed; night had
fallen, and, still, Sam and Duncan hadn't arrived, and Oliver
hadn't returned.
  Sydney stalked over to the bed, plopped down on it, and hit a
nearby pillow.  "God!" she muttered to herself.  "I *hate* waiting!"
  Sydney was beginning to stew badly when she finally heard a soft
tap on the door.  Too much experience had taught her not to just
fling it open.  She checked the peephole, then, thankfully, let
in Duncan and Sam.
  "Syd, God, I was beginning to think we'd never see you again,"
Duncan said, hugging her, as he entered.  Even though they'd
been splitting up to travel in couples for a few years now,
occasionally switching pairings to keep anyone following them
on their toes, Duncan's heartfelt relief at seeing Syd safe at
each new place never dimmed.  The thought which still gave him
the most nightmares--even more than having the Committee catch
up with them--was the idea that he might arrive at a meeting
place one day, and she'd never show up.  As deeply in love as
he was with Samantha, it was the thought of having Sydney
harmed which terrified him the most.
  Sydney's exasperation died down slightly upon seeing them, but
she was still agitated.  She returned Duncan's embrace and then
hugged her sister.  "What took you two so long?"
  "Do you have any idea what the bus service to this town is like?"
Sam answered.  "It's like going into a blackhole or something."
She looked around.  "Where's Oliver?"
  Sydney shook her head.  "I don't know!  He left hours ago, but I
haven't heard anything since."
  "Hey, no wonder you're so tense," Duncan said, coming up to
put a hand on her arm.
  "It's not just that," Sydney returned, putting her hand on his
upper arm but then pulling away.  "I can't believe how close to
L.A. we are.  I mean, this has *got* to be one of the *stupidest*
moves we've made in the past few years."  She sat on the bed
and slouched over, with her elbows on her knees, looking down
at the floor.  "I'm just glad Mom and Dad--and Bill--didn't come
as well."
  Duncan sat down next to her and put a hand on her shoulder.
"We'll be okay, Syd. . . I mean, it's not like Sunnydale's that
dangerous a place."  Sydney looked up at him.  "And we should
be enough out of the city to be safe," he smiled.
  "I guess," she returned.  "I just wish Oliver would come back."
  Sam seemed to be assessing the situation.  "How long ago did he
leave?" she asked.
  "About five hours," Sydney responded.
  Sam and Duncan exchanged a brief look.  "Have you two stolen a
car here?" Sam continued.
  "No, Oliver thought it might be too obvious, in a town this
size," Sydney told them.
  "So, he's on foot?" Duncan asked.
  "I guess," Sydney replied.
  "Well, let's go look for him, then," Duncan suggested.  "It
didn't look like there was too much town to cover."
  "What if he comes back here?" Sydney asked.
  "I'll leave a brief note," Sam responded.  "He can wait, if
he gets back first."
  Sydney wasn't entirely sure this was a good idea, but waiting
any longer, she decided, would probably drive her insane.  She
agreed.
[End of Part 1a1; move on to part 1a2; sorry for the confusion!]



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail]
Subject: BUFFYFIC: "Synchronicity" (1a2/11)
Date: 23 Jul 1997 10:38:22 -0400

Introductions, etc. in (surprise, surprise) the Introduction.
I only repeat that these characters are not mine, and no
infringement of any sort is intended.  Please send any comments
to [e-mail].

*******************************************************************

                      Synchronicity (Part 1a2)
                        by Katherine Gilbert

  "Buffy?" Willow asked nervously.  "Didn't Giles say he'd be here?"
She was sticking close to Xander; graveyards at night had become
one of her least favorite hangouts.
  "He's supposed to be," Buffy shrugged, wandering past a stone
angel.
  "Maybe that side-show clown car he calls transportation let him
down," Xander suggested.  He was trying to look extra brave in
hope of impressing Buffy; he wasn't succeeding.
  Buffy sighed quietly and fingered the stake in the pocket of her
jacket--the jacket Angel had given her.  As much as she loved her
friends, she hated having them here with her now.  They were an
extra target for the vampires and a couple of extra backs to
watch.  Giles, however, had made clear to them all how important
it was to stop the two vampiric messengers who were supposed to
be bringing news to the Master tonight, and Willow and Xander,
therefore, couldn't bear to just let Buffy handle it alone.
"Sweet, but not entirely helpful," she thought.  "I'm sure he'll
be along . . .," Buffy began verbally.  "God, there he is!" she
continued, relieved, running toward someone who looked like Giles.
"Um, I think," she added, as they got closer.
  The man they approached had Giles' face, but the similarity seemed
to end there.  His hair was slicked back; he had no glasses; he
wore jeans and a black leather jacket, and a gold hoop earring was
visible in one of his earlobes.
  The man in question, known to those he trusted as Oliver Sampson,
turned to see three teenagers running toward him, one of them
holding--was that a stake?  He was tempted to pull out his gun,
but their approach seemed friendly, if confused--not threatening,
so he put on his best Committee look instead.
  "Hey, Giles . . . um, is that you?" Willow asked, when they reached
him.
  "It's a stylin' outfit, Giles," Buffy said, taking hold of his arm
and turning him around to examine him.  "But it's a little bit
outside of your usual British curator couture, isn't it?"  She
raised an eyebrow at him.
  "Like--the--earring," Xander said, in his best "so when did you
arrive from outer space?" tone.
  Oliver pulled back his arm from Buffy, stepped far enough away
from her to be able to stop her if she aimed the stake she was
holding at him, and said, "Who are you, and what do you want?"
  The three friends exchanged a glance.
  "Okay," Buffy said, "the outfit is weird enough. . . well, in
that it's actually kind of cool and, therefore, totally out of
character for you. . ., but the amnesia routine is bordering
on the scary.  We've got vampires to slay, remember?"
  Oliver looked at her closely and, then, with one eye still on
the stake in her hand, said, "Is there a mental health facility
I can help you find your way back to?"
  Xander and Willow laughed briefly, before they realized he
wasn't joking.  Willow got a cold, sinking feeling in her stomach.
"Giles," she said, as she approached him slowly, "are you feeling
okay?"
  Oliver watched her approach cautiously.  She seemed harmless; they
all did.  They could be a Committee trick of some sort, though, he
realized.  Since the Committee ran in families, it was possible, but
even they didn't usually start off operatives in missions *this*
young.  It was, then, he hoped, some sort of weird practical joke.
Still, he was glad to have his gun with him.
  Willow was about to put her hand on the pseudo-Giles' arm, but
she pulled back at the last moment, seeing the look in his eyes.
She had seen Giles worried, annoyed, and even angry, but the look
this man gave her, with eyes which looked so much like Giles', was
--dangerous, and it scared her.  She backed away from him.  If
this was Giles, she prayed it was a side she'd never see again.
  Buffy saw Willow's reaction and grew worried.  Even at his most
petulant, Giles was incapable of *scaring* Willow.  "Giles," she
said slowly, getting the man's attention, "what's--going--on?"
  Oliver looked deeply at her.  "I believe you've made a mistake,"
he said.  "Either that or your joke really isn't very funny."
With a quick movement, he grabbed the stake from the offguard
Buffy's hand.  "Either way, it's late; threatening strangers with
stakes in a cemetary is a felony, and I think it's time you children
put away your stories of vampires and returned to your homes."
  "Hey, look Giles," Xander returned, "I don't know what sort of
weird training technique you think this is for Buffy, but . . ."
  "Buffy?" Willow tried to interrupt, looking to the group's far
right.
  ". . . it's not particularly effective . . .," Xander continued.
  "Uh, Buffy?" Willow tried to drown out Xander again.
  ". . . so why don't you just go home . . .," Xander was still
saying.
  "Buffy!" Willow said, more loudly.
  Xander finally broke off and looked at her.  "Willow, I'm in
mid-tirade, here."
  "Uh, sorry," Willow said, "but aren't those the messengers we
were here to stop?"
  "Oh great," Buffy huffed, as she looked at the two men making their
way through the cemetary.
  "I've got an angry Xander," she thought, "a frightened Willow, a
seriously wigged?--possessed?--something Giles, and now vampires."
  "Okay," she said aloud, "hide, and I'll take care of them."
  "What is she doing?" Oliver asked, as Buffy pulled another stake
out of her pocket and stalked in the men's direction.
  Willow and Xander exchanged looks and then tried to pull Oliver
back into the shadows with them.  They were surprised when he
didn't move.
  "Hey!" Buffy called to the nearby strangers.  "Warm victim!  Easy
pickings!"
  One of the vampires turned to her, demonic face showing, snarled,
and continued on.  His message was too important to waste time with
a snack.
  "My God," Oliver breathed, seeing the vampire's face for the first
time.  "What is that thing?"
  Willow and Xander stared at each other and then back at Oliver.
"A vampire--you know, evil, undead bloodsucker that it's Buffy's
duty to slay?" Xander answered him.  "This isn't exactly a first
time for you."
  Oliver simply stared at him.
  Buffy, meanwhile, muttered, "Great," and then took off after the
creatures.  She knocked one down, but the other seemed ready to
pounce.
  "Christ!" Oliver muttered softly before breaking away from the
strange teenagers near him to help their friend.  Admittedly, she
had started it, but she was still in danger.  He pulled his gun
out, pointed at the man who was about to spring on her (the stake
in his other hand forgotten), and said, "Hold it!"
  The vampire who had almost attacked Buffy looked at him, shook
his head, and sprang toward him.
  Oliver fired--and fired--and fired.  The man still ran toward
him, not even seeming to slow down.  He only seemed annoyed.
  Buffy, after a short struggle, staked the vampire she was fighting,
looked back at Oliver, and screamed, "Use the stake!"
  Oliver, almost in shock, dropped his gun, readied his stake, and
then managed to plunge it in his attacker's neck.  To his amazement,
the man kept coming.  Oliver managed to use the man's momentum to
flip him over him, as he rolled backward.  The attacker, stake still
in his neck, landed on his back.
  Buffy, after watching this leather-jacketed Giles with confusion,
shook her head, ran past him and managed to put a stake in the
vampire's heart, while he lay on his back.  The vampire disappeared
in a shower of green.  She looked back at her supposed Watcher.
"The *heart*, Giles!  Remember it?  It's that organ that pumps blood
in humans and is the killing point in vampires?"  She shook her
head.  "What universe did you wake up in today?"
  Oliver, who had staggered slowly to his feet and retrieved his gun,
stared at her, slightly openmouthed.  He hadn't the slightest idea.
[End of Part 1a2; move on to 1b]



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail]
Subject: BUFFYFIC: "Synchronicity" (2a/11)
Date: 23 Jul 1997 10:57:45 -0400

Sorry, guys, this is not my day for making smooth posts.  Didn't
mean to orphan the middle part of Part 1 from the 1st digest.
Sigh.  Anyway, hopefully the system will like this better.
Hope I haven't discouraged you all from reading!  For warnings,
etc. see introduction. :)  Again, no infringement of any sort is
intended.  Please send all comments and requests for missing
parts (hmm, that sounded a bit more morbid than I meant it
to) to: [e-mail].

******************************************************************

                      Synchronicity--Part 2a
                      By Katherine Gilbert

  A while later, Giles had gotten the VR travellers to come with
him and had ferried them and the high schoolers back to his rented
house by squeezing them all, disconsolately, into his car.  He was
now in his kitchen making tea for them, when Buffy came in.
  "Giles, why did you bring them here?" she whispered to him, as he
waited for the kettle to boil.
  "Because they saw the vampires, and they saw you," he returned
quietly, not looking at her.
  "So?" Buffy contended.  "There were dozens of witnesses when I got
rid of the vampires during The Harvest.  They wrote it off.  Why
wouldn't they," she said, pointing to the door to his living room,
"do the same?"
  Giles sighed and looked at her.  "They have questions, Buffy, and,
if you've noticed, they don't seem like the sort of people you can
just ignore."
  Buffy rolled her eyes.  "So, we just tell them everything?"
  "N-no," Giles said haltingly, "we tell them as little as we can
get away with."
  Buffy didn't look happy.

  In Giles' living room, an odd group sat together.  Willow was
sitting even closer to Xander than normal and wishing every
second that Giles would return.  Oliver stared concentratedly at
the two teenagers, which made Willow's nerves even worse and did
nothing for Xander's either.  Sam, who still had a thin green
film on her from her kill, was assessing them as well; Xander
was caught inbetween a hormonal charge and absolute terror when he
looked at her.  Sam's emotional state made Buffy seem like a fluffy
bunny.
  Duncan looked over at Willow.  "The poor kid's terrified," he
thought.  He reached for a bowl of candies in a glass dish, which
sat on the coffee table, and held it out to her.  "Candy?" he
offered gently.
  "I don't think so," Willow said softly, eyes wide.
  "Go on," Duncan shrugged.  "I doubt . . . what's his name? Giles?"
  Willow and Xander nodded.
  ". . . would mind.  Besides, candy won't usually bite back,"
Duncan continued.  "Although there was this case I heard about once
where . . ."
  Oliver rolled his eyes and looked at him.  "Duncan," he said
simply.
  Duncan stopped.  "Uh, right--story for another day, then."  He
smiled at Willow, who tentatively took a candy from the dish and
smiled quietly back.
  To Willow's great relief, Giles then came back in.  "I've made
some tea," he said, setting his tray down on the table.  Buffy
wandered in after him.
  "China?" Oliver inquired.
  Giles gave him his best "how did I land among these barbarians?"
look.  "Indian," he replied simply.
  "Of course," Oliver smiled.
  Giles shook his head.  The man was testing him--clever.
  A few minutes later, when everyone had tea, although only Willow,
Giles, and Oliver were actually drinking it, the silence was a bit
stifling.
  "Okay," Buffy broke in, "enough with the awkward silence already.
Who are you people; where did you come from, and how come you look
so much like Giles?" she addressed Oliver.
  "I think a better question would be," Oliver answered, putting
down his mug, "who were those people who you attacked in the
graveyard, and why did they disappear?"
  Giles sighed and looked away.  "They were vampires."
  "Right," Sam said disgustedly, "and I'm Queen Elizabeth."
  Giles looked at her deeply.  "I don't think so."
  Willow found her voice and looked at Giles and Oliver.  "Are
you two related or something?"
  The two men looked at each other.  "No," they both said.
  "Well, then, isn't your resemblance kind of eerie?" she continued.
  Giles sighed.  The worst part of his new job was having to have
explanations when he knew of none, but, seeing Willow's eyes, he knew
he couldn't just not answer.  "That's the trouble with children,"
he thought.  "You always need to be able to reassure them, even when
you're confused or frightened yourself."
  Verbally, Giles said, taking off his glasses and rubbing his nose,
"Well, there is a theory that every person on earth has a double--
a doppelganger."  He put his glasses back on.  "Although those
doubles rarely meet."
  "Wait," Xander threw in, "isn't it supposed to be, like, deadly,
if they do?"
  Giles nodded and looked at the floor. "That is one theory," he
agreed, cocking his head.
  Willow grew pale.  "So, that means you're going to die now?" she
asked in a small voice, looking at Giles.
  Giles was about to speak, but Duncan leaned forward and touched her
arm.  "Hey, that's not the way it has to be.  Y'know, I met this
guy once who looked a lot like me, and . . ."
  Oliver sighed softly.  "Duncan," he said before looking at Willow.
"If you let him get started on one of his stories, you'll never
get him quiet again."  He looked back at Giles.  "The most reasonable
explanation is coincidence; it happens.  Now, would you like to
explain why you let these children wander through a graveyard at
night, where various criminals could attack them?"
  "I really didn't think *all* of them would be there," Giles turned
to the students.
  "Hey, just looking after Buffy . . . you know, protection," Xander
tried.
  "Buffy is more than capable of handling a few vampires on her own,"
Giles responded.
  "Well, you were suppposed to be there with her," Xander contended.
  Giles looked away.  "Principal Snyder caught up with me and gave
me a very long lecture about the impropriety of being seen to be *too*
close to the students.  I told him that I hardly thought that was a
problem for me, as most students tend to see the school library as
a morgue with reading material--a double threat, if you will, but
he made it rather clear that he meant my relationship w-with the
three of you."  He stammered, turning an interesting shade of pink.
"He seems to think I'm a bit of a . . . a pedophile."  He looked
back up at them, slightly embarrassed.
  "Oh, well, maybe you could tell him that we're really into pedophilia
too," Willow suggested, before everyone stared at her.  "Or maybe
that's not really the best way to approach it," she murmured sheepishly.
  "Did you try telling him that we're just really big on library
science?" Xander threw in.
  "I tried that," Giles responded, nodding, still a bit embarrassed,
"but he didn't seem very open to it.  I think it's just something we'll
have to worry about in the future."
  "Hold on," Oliver interrupted their conversation.  "Where did you
say you worked?"
  Giles looked at him curiously, trying to stop blushing at the previous
conversation.  "At the library at Sunnydale High School.  Why?"
  The Bloom sisters, Oliver, and Duncan exchanged looks.  "And your
name isn't James Crater?" Sam asked him.
  "No," Giles shook his head.  "Although . . . I think that may have
been the name of the man I replaced."
  "How long have you worked there?" Oliver pressed.
  "Well, several months now.  You know," Giles pondered, "it does
seem like I heard some stories about Crater going missing."
  Oliver put his head in his hands, while Sam looked at the floor,
and Duncan and Sydney exchanged glances.
  "What is it?" Buffy asked.
  Oliver raised his head from his hands but continued looking at the
floor.  "Just our reason for coming here," he muttered.  He looked
back up at the members of his group, then stood and said, "How about
if we finish this conversation tomorrow?  We'll come back at 4 p.m."
He and the others prepared to leave.
  Rupert stood.  "Alright, I suppose, but what do you want with us?"
  Oliver looked at him, before they left.  "Hopefully, very little."
  "Can I give you a lift home--or to where you're staying?" Giles
asked, before he realized what he was doing.  A lifetime's training
in manners often tripped him up.
  "No, thank you.  We'll be in touch with you," Oliver returned, as
they left.
  When the four strangers had gone, the Sunnydale residents just stared
after them.
  "So," Xander said.  "The aliens have landed, then."
  "Apparently," Giles blinked.
  "Giles," Buffy was confused.  "Why are we helping them?  They are
totally wiggy.  I mean, they act like they fell out of a spy movie
or something."
  Giles shook his head.  "There's something deeper here, Buffy.  I
just don't know what yet."
[End of Part 2a; move on to part 2b :)]



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail]
Subject: BUFFYFIC: "Synchronicity" (2b/11)
Date: 23 Jul 1997 10:59:56 -0400

Okay, here's 2b.  For warnings, etc. see introduction. :)  Again,
no infringement of any sort is intended.  Please send all comments
and requests to: [e-mail].

******************************************************************

                     Synchronicity--Part 2b
                      By Katherine Gilbert

  Oliver and his companions quietly walked back to their motel.  Sam
broke their silence.  "Do you really trust those freak show rejects?"
  Oliver shook his head.  "Not particularly, but they don't seem
like Committee.  If Giles is the new librarian at that school, he
might be able to help us."
  "Uh, guys," Duncan broke in, "I have the $50,000 question:  what
were those things we fought tonight?  And why were a bunch of
teenagers and a high school librarian out there looking for them?"
  "That's two questions, Dunc," Syd smiled at him.
  "Okay, so it's the $100,000 question," he grinned back.
  "Maybe it's some new chemical the Committee's invented," Sam
suggested.  "It would make getting rid of inconvenient bodies easier."
  "I've never seen anything like it, though," Oliver replied.  "It
would have to be *very* advanced technology."
  "So, I'm guessing there's only one way for us to figure out if we
can trust them or not," Syd observed.
  "I'm afraid so," Oliver agreed.  "We'll get the computers hooked
up as soon as we get back."

  By the next morning, Oliver, Duncan, and the Blooms had decided
to work through a conference call to their four new acquaintances.
They had decided that Syd would take them in, trying to catch them
all before they left for school.  She ran into a bit a trouble,
however, when she couldn't get Giles to answer at home.  Another
try, though, found him at the school library.  "6:30 a.m.?" Syd
thought.  "This guy really loves his job."  Duncan, Sam, and Oliver
waited.

  -->ENTER
  Willow, Xander, Giles, and Buffy found themselves in the Sunnydale
graveyard at night, although, typical for VR.5, none of the colors
quite made sense.  The sky was a strange lavender shade and the moon
was blood red.  Buffy suddenly looked frightened.  "Where are my
stakes?" she asked.
  "Um, here," Giles offered her one.
  "One?" Buffy asked, looking at it.  "But the vampires always keep
coming.  One stake never seems to be enough."  She looked back at
Giles.  "Doesn't evil ever take a holiday?"
  "Not really."  Sydney, wearing a white, flowing dress, walked around
the side of a stone obelisk.
  "Who are you?" Buffy asked her.
  "I could be a friend," Sydney replied, "but first I need to see
what you know."
  "Could you save the quiz until after I've killed the vampires?"
Buffy responded.
  Sydney walked up to her and looked in her eyes.  "You really
believe they're real, don't you?"
  Buffy smiled back.  "Don't you?"  She then leaned around Sydney
and staked a vampire who was about to attack her, who then disappeared.
"Kind of hard not to believe when I spend almost every night killing
them."  She looked back at Sydney.
  Sydney turned back around to see the graveyard filling with the
same creatures she'd seen the night before, all coming toward them.
  "Oh no," Willow breathed.
  Then, joining the vampires were dozens of men in suits--Committee
men.
  "Don't they scare you?" Sydney asked.
  "What--guys in suits?" Xander responded.
  "Maybe you work for them," Sydney continued, as all of the attackers
began to close in.
  "Uh, no, we just have bigger things to worry about," Xander replied.
  "If it were only daylight," Giles murmured.
  Sydney turned to them.  "If you want it to be, it is."
  They stared at her.  Giles and Willow exchanged looks and closed their
eyes to concentrate.  Buffy and Xander soon did the same.
  The sun rose.  When the Sunnydale residents opened their eyes, they
saw vampires exploding in bursts of green all over the cemetary.
  Giles smiled.  "Nice trick," he said, pleased with himself.
  The men in suits, however, were still approaching.
  "They don't look real friendly," Xander noted.
  "They're not," Sydney agreed.  She looked over the group; they
looked legitimately confused.  "Okay, we need to get away from them,"
she noted.
  "The mausoleum!" Buffy suggested, as they all ran toward it.
  "Oh, not again," Willow whimpered before following.
  Once inside the mausoleum, Sydney pointed to a giant Committee symbol
on the wall.  "It's not a real escape, of course," she said.
  The other four stared at it.  "What is it?" Willow asked.
  "It appears to be a symbol of some kind," Giles observed.
  "Very good, Giles," Buffy answered.  "Now can you tell us of what?"
  Giles shook his head.  "A secret society of some sort?" he theorized,
shrugging.
  "Well, that wasn't exactly specific," Xander said.
  "I've never seen it before," Giles continued.  "If I could get to
my books, I could look it up.  It might be some vampire group that's
coming."
  "You people really have vampires on the brain," Sydney observed.
She looked at them closely.  "You've never heard of the Committee?"
  They all looked confused and shook their heads.
  "Are they some sort of cult?" Rupert asked.
  "Not exactly," Sydney smiled.
  "Demon worshippers?" Buffy tried.
  Sydney looked at her, confused.  "Not as far as I know," she replied.
She looked at them all.  "So, your greatest fear is vampires?"
  "Maybe not the greatest," Willow replied, "but they're right up there."
  "So, why do you fight them?" Sydney asked.
  Giles stepped toward her.  "That's rather a long story," he began.
  Sydney smiled back at him.  "Save it for this afternoon," she said,
touching the Committee symbol and sending them all back.

  Sydney, back in her motel room, took off her VR glasses slowly.
  "What did you find out?" Oliver asked her.
  Sydney took off her VR gloves and looked at him.  "I'm not sure
you're going to believe me," she smiled.
[End of Part 2]



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail]
Subject: BUFFYFIC: "Synchronicity" (3a/11)
Date: 23 Jul 1997 11:03:07 -0400

Okay, hopefully Parts 3a and 3b will be the last for today.
Here's praying that they actually make it to the list.  See
Introduction for warnings, etc.  Again, no infringement of
anyone's copyright is intended with the following.  Please
send any comments or requests to:  [e-mail].

                      Synchronicity, Part 3a
                       by Katherine Gilbert

  By 3:45 p.m., Giles had managed to pull himself away from his
books long enough to wait at home for the odd group he'd met
the night before.  Buffy, still suspicious, waited with him,
while Willow and Xander felt it to be their slayerette duty to
join them.
  "So, Giles, have you learned anything about them?" Buffy asked,
sitting on Giles' sofa, bouncing one of the hard candies from
Giles' coffeetable dish on the hardwood floor like a ball to divert
herself.  Xander was counting the number of times she managed to
bounce and catch it.
  Giles walked up to her and caught the candy in the air, giving
Buffy a hard stare, before he walked toward a chair.
  "Nice catch," Buffy observed.  She tucked her feet up to sit
cross-legged on the sofa.
  "Thank you," Giles said drily, taking a chair.
  Xander sighed, looking at Buffy, wishing she were wearing one of
the short dresses she was so fond of instead of the tight pants
she'd chosen.  Buffy caught the look, and Xander embarrassedly
started to examine the candy dish.  Willow and Buffy looked at
each other and shook their heads.  Xander grinned sheepishly and
returned his attention to Giles.
  Giles saw Buffy's boots on his sofa but decided he would just have
to clean up her wreckage when she had left; it was easier, and slightly
less stressful, than trying to correct her.  He sighed.  "They don't
*seem* to have any sort of demonic or vampiric connections, as far
as I can tell.  Also, they don't seem to have any fear of crosses."
He looked at the candy he was now holding and tucked it in his
jacket pocket with his usual mothballs.  He tried to make a mental
note to avoid mixing them up later.
  "How do you know?" Willow asked.
  "I, um, I held one on them last night at the cemetary," Giles
said sheepishly.
  The three teenagers looked at each other.  "Why?" Buffy asked.
  Giles looked away.  "Mistaken identity."
  "So, do you think we should really trust them?" Willow asked him.
"I mean, the long-haired guy--Duncan?"
  The others nodded slightly.
  ". . . he seemed pretty nice," she continued, "and, since this
morning, I don't feel quite so scared of that long-haired woman--
um . . ."
  "Sydney," Buffy supplied.
  "Yeah," Willow went on, "but they're still pretty strange.  I mean,
why were they in the graveyard at night, anyway?"
  Giles nodded.  "It probably was coincidence, or synchronicity,
possibly."
  "Synchronicity?  Wasn't that, like, a Sting album decades ago?"
Xander asked.
  Giles looked at him.  Dealing with people for whom 10 years was
over half their lives was sometimes rather disconcerting.
"Synchronicity is a Jungian theory . . .," Giles began.
  "Who?" Xander asked.
  "A famous psychologist," Willow supplied.
  "Oh, that Jung," Xander nodded.
  Giles gave him a look; he hated to be interrupted.  He then looked
at Willow and nodded.  "He was also a psychical theorist, of a sort.
Synchronicity was his term for events which seem to be unrelated
but have a deeper spiritual connection."
  "Kind of like me ending up in Sunnydale now?" Buffy asked, slightly
pleased with herself that she had been following the conversation.
  "Yes," Giles nodded.  He thought for a second.  "Half a minute--
why did you say that you trusted this woman Sydney more since this
morning?" he asked Willow.
  "I dunno," Willow shrugged.  "It's just . . . before I left for
school, I got this feeling that she wouldn't hurt us."
  The other three looked at each other.
  "Did anything happen to trigger this feeling?" Giles asked.
  Willow pondered.  "I'm not sure. . . I was up and getting dressed
and . . . and the phone rang . . ."  She shook her head.  ". . . but
it was only a wrong number."
  The other three looked slightly more suspicious.
  "Is that what the person on the other end said?" Giles stared at
Willow concentratedly.
  "Uh, no," she supplied.  "They just hung up."
  Buffy nodded.  "You picked up the phone, and, two seconds later,
the line went dead."
  "Uh, yeah," Willow agreed.
  Buffy looked at her.  "I got one of those, too."
  "As did I," Giles included.
  "Me four," Xander agreed.
  "What time was it?" Giles asked.
  "6:30?" Willow said, pondering.
  "Earlier than human beings should have to be up," Buffy commented,
nodding.
  Giles held his hand to his mouth, looking concerned.
  Buffy looked at him.  "So, what's going on, Giles?"
  Giles looked like he was growing angry.  "Subliminal suggestion?"
he pondered.  "Some sort of hypnosis?"
  "Wasn't it a bit quick for that?" Xander asked.
  "I'm not sure," Giles said, "but we're going to find out."
[End of Part 3a; move on to 3b, should you feel so inclined :)]



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail]
Subject: BUFFYFIC: The Weapon:  Part V/?
Date: 23 Jul 1997 23:34:20 -0400

Title:  The Weapon
Summary:  So far:  Xander vanishes, and an older version of him appears.
The older version recounts the story of his ten years in Purgatory.  Older
Xander showers, and Buffy realizes he's a honey.  SuperXander and Buffy
return to the Library, Willow hacks the X-Files, Ms. Calendar hits on
SuperXander, and Willow goes Rambo.
Rating: G
Disclaimer:  Willow, Buffy, Xander, Giles, Angel, and Ms. Calendar belong
to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and 20th Century Fox.  This story, and all
other aspects of it, is minemineminemineMINE!

*****

Willow stood motionless on the steps, her hands clenched around the shotgun.

"Well," she said, as she began to descend the steps, "what's everybody just
standing around for?  We've got a Xander to save?"
"Yes, um," said Giles, flustered, "it's just that, ah, we're wondering what
exactly--"
"The *hell* it is you think you're doing?!?!" shouted Buffy, as she marched
up to her friend.
"I'm going with you." responded Willow, calmly.
"The hell you are!" shouted Xander, as he approached Willow.
"Xander, I have to go!  I'm *going* to go."
"No you're not!" replied Buffy.  "Look Willow, I know you care about
Xander, but you're not going.  I'm not gonna let you put your life at risk
like that!"
"A can handle myself!" screamed Willow.  With that, she quickly glanced
around the room.  She spied an apple sitting on the main desk.  Willow
quickly snatched it up.
"Do I have to prove myself to you?" she asked, loud and defiant, "Is that
it?"  Then, the tossed the apple up into the air as high and as hard has
the could.  As it sailed up and accross the room she whipped out one of the
Barrettas, and fired.  Once, twice, three times the gun went off.  When the
apple hit the floor, Giles picked it up.  Three bullet holes pierced its
perfect red skin.
"Where..." asked Giles, awed, "where did you learn to shoot like that?"
"Grandpa Joe." muttered Xander.
"Who?"
"Grandpa Joe." replied Willow.  "My Grandpa Joe used to be in the Army.  He
also used to like to go hunting, and go to the shooting range a lot.  My
parents always let him take me with him, even though I hated it.  Anyway,
he always used to show me how to use the guns, and he'd get me to practice
using them.  I didn't want to, but I figured he was my Grandpa, and he
loved me, and I could do this little thing for him.  After a few years, I
got pretty good at it.  He used to call me his, "Little Annie Oakley."  I
went to the shooting range with him at least once a week every from the
time I was 10 to last year, when he died.  In his will, he left me his
guns.  I never used them, just locked them up in the attic.  They scared
me.  They still do.  But I know how to use them, and I'm *going* to use
them to help save Xander."
"No you're not Willow." replied Buffy, firm.
"BUFFY," she screamed, as she leveled the Barretta at Buffy, "I'M GOING,
EVEN IF I HAVE TO PUT A BULLET IN YOU TO DO IT!!"
Buffy stood back, shocked, incapable of speech.  A single tear trickled
down Willow's cheek, away from her cold, hard eyes.

"I'm through hiding Buffy," said Willow, as she lowered the weapon, "when
they took Jesse I did nothing.  When they killed my friends, invaded our
world... I did nothing!  Now Xander's gone.  I'm not gonna hide any more
Buffy!  This is where I fight."
"But Will--"
"I love him Buffy." said Willow softly, as she began to sob, "I'm not going
to write another requiem.  Not for him."

Xander stepped up, and put his arms around the crying Willow.

"Surprised?" she asked, sarcastically, as she looked up at him through tear
soaked eyes, "Surprised to know I loved you, always have, and always will?"
"No.." he said, as he looked down at her, "somehow... I knew.  I've always
known.  I just never wanted to admit it to myself."
"And now?"
"Now... now I'm different.  I'm not him anymore, not the boy you love.  But
I'm ready to kill myself for letting you get away.  For not realizing,
before I was taken..."
"It was my fault.  I should have told you."
"But you didn't have to!  I knew!  I just didn't want to believe it.  And
now it's too late."
"No," said Willow, as pushed a way from him, wiping away her tears, "it's
not too late.  We can save him... save you.  But you have to understand.  I
*have* to go."

The whole room was silent as Willow looked up at Xander.  He stepped back,
and turned away from her.

"I understand." he said.  "You gotta do what you gotta do."
"Thank you." replied Willow, quietly.
"Will," asked Buffy, "are you sure?"
"I'd die for him," replied Willow, "I'd do anything if it would bring him
back."

Buffy nodded, and turned to Giles.

"OK Giles," she said, "let's do it."
"Yes," he replied, "just a moment."  Giles rushed off to the armory,
quickly returning with two swords and a large knife.  He handed Buffy and
Angel each a sword, and gave the knife to Willow.
"Most of the demons you meet should be lesser demons," he said, "you can
kill them any which way, like humans.  But if you run into any higher
demons, go for the heart or the head.  That will usually kill them.  If it
doesn't... then go help you."
"And here!" said Ms. Calendar, as she handed Xander a small glass sphere,
"This is your ticket outta here.  We used a linking spell we found in the
texts to link it to this sphere," she held up an identical sphere, "so
whatever happens to that sphere happens to this sphere.  Smash that sphere
when you're ready to go, and this one will shatter.  That'll tell us when
to bring you back."
"Wait," said Buffy, "why can't we just use this spell to snag Xander back?"
"Well first of all," replied Giles, "we can't bring him here while his
older self is here.  Their auras sort of "repel" each other, like magnets.
It makes it impossible to pull him here, though it doesn't affect me
sending Xander there for some reason.  Also, all of you are right here, I
can get a "lock" on your auras with the spell.  I, and Ms. Calendar, are,
unfortunately, not powerful enough to get a lock on him and bring him here."
"Alright.  Now how do we do this?"
"All of you have to form a circle.  Stand over there, and hold hands."

The four complied, forming a circle, and linking their hands together.

"Now, clear your minds.  Focus on who or where you want to go.  Remember,
when you want to come back, just shatter the sphere, and reform the circle."

The four stood, their hands interlocked tightly, their eyes closed.

"I guess it's all up to me now." said Giles.  Then he felt a hand clasp
around his own.  He looked back, and saw Samantha Calender looking up into
his eyes.
"It's up to *us*." she said.

Rupert smiled, and began the spell.

"By the power of the Circle of the Ferrotti," he said, his voice growing in
volume, "by the might of Viashino, Ertibus, Anya, and the Twins, let this
world link to the Abyss.  Let the four be taken, let them go to the one
they seek.  I beseech thee, powers above and below, take them where they
wish.  I command thee portal, open!"  The room began to rumble, the circle
of four, to glow.
"I command thee portal," repeated Giles, his voice rising, "*open!*"  The
rumbling grew louder.  The glowing increased.
"I COMMAND THEE," screamed Giles, "PORTAL OPEN!!"

Suddenly, there was a crack like thunder, and a glowing circle appeared
above the four.  Angel, Buffy, Xander, and Willow were immediately consumed
by the portal, and it collapsed with a blinding flash, and a blast of hot
wind.

"God help them," said Giles, as he looked at the smoking floor where the
floor had just stood, "because where they're going, no one else can."
"Amen." said Samantha, as she clasped both her hands around his.

*****

Young Xander Harris awoke with a start, and collapsed into another fit of
coughing.  How long had he been here?  Had it been days, weeks?  He didn't
know.  He would have given anything just for a glance at his Tweety watch,
just to see what day it was!  But he couldn't.  As he tried to wipe the
cold sweat from his brow, he found his hand brought to a halt by heavy
chain, the chain which was attached to the manacles on his wrists and feet,
to the collar on his neck, and from there to the wall.  Xander nearly
screamed out loud at being unable to complete such a simple task.  But he
hadn't the strength.  Desperation and defeat crept back into his heart, and
he collapsed back onto the cold stone floor, shivering.  Silently, he
prayed for anyone, any*thing* to save him.  Painfully, he fell into another
violent sleep.

*****

End Part V

*****

That's part 5.  Note that I managed to slip the names of a few of my
net-pals (you know who you are!) into this chapter.  Hope you like!  Part
VI is gonna be a hoot...

--Viashino--
"The dead make much better soldiers than the living.  They don't ask
questions, they don't require pay, and they don't stop fighting when some
random body part falls off."
--Nevinyrral, Necromancer's Handbook




-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail]
Subject: BUFFYFIC: "Synchronicity" (3b/11)
Date: 25 Jul 1997 7:42:32 -0400

Sorry for all the confusion.  As Jill will attest, I've been
having contretemps with the server (whine).  Here's the last part
of Part 3; I sent it out Wednesday, originally, but . . .  See
Introduction for warnings, etc.  Again, no infringement of anyone's
copyright is intended with the following.  Please send any comments
or requests to:  [e-mail].

                      Synchronicity, Part 3b
                       by Katherine Gilbert

  The Blooms, Oliver, and Duncan arrived at Giles' house promptly
at 4 p.m.  When they entered, Buffy was waiting for them.
  Oliver believed that there was little to fear from the librarian
and the teenagers, especially since Sydney's trip into VR with
them that morning.  He was offguard, unwisely, and Buffy's attack
caught him unaware; she took him by the shoulder, threw him up against
a wall, and held a stake to his heart.  Oliver might have been able
to disarm her, when she first attacked, but he wasn't sure he could
do it without hurting her, which he was unwilling to do; she was just
too young.
  Buffy, who was used to winning most of her battles, saw nothing
strange in being able to so easily best the older man.  She looked at
the other three.  "If you want him to be able to walk out that door
with you, you'll tell us what you did to us," she said sternly.
  Oliver had seen what Buffy could do; he took her threat seriously.
His companions, as well, could see that the ex-Committee man believed
in Buffy's power, and, therefore, they listened seriously to the girl's
words.
  Sydney looked *very* frightened.  "Oliver," she mouthed.
  Sam was about to reach for her gun, but Duncan stopped her and looked
at her.  The last thing he wanted to see was a bunch of dead teenagers.
  Oliver assessed Buffy.  "You don't really want to do that, do you?"
he asked.
  She pressed the stake harder against his chest.  "Try me," she said.
  "You'd kill someone who had your friend's face?" he asked her.
  Giles laughed softly, trying to cover up his nervousness at the
entire situation.  "You underestimate how much Buffy dislikes the
destiny I represent for her."
  Buffy was a little hurt, but she didn't let it show.  Yes, she hated
the destiny that had been forced on her, but she didn't blame Giles
for it--not anymore.  She reminded herself that he knew that, or she
hoped he did.  "He's just saying it to give us an edge on these guys,"
she reminded herself mentally.
  Oliver looked at Buffy more deeply.  "You're very well trained," he
noted, "but you don't take any real pleasure in this work, do you?"
  "I've enjoyed a few kills in my day," she returned, glaring at him.
  "Of vampires, correct?" he asked.  "What about humans?  What about
someone whose body you have to dispose of after the kill--someone with
a soul?"  He raised an eyebrow at her.
  Buffy was trying not to relent.  He had disarmed her when she was
offguard before.  "You haven't proved your soul to me yet."
  Willow and Duncan's eyes met.  "That girl is about as likely to
williingly take part in a murder as I am," he thought.  "What do
you want?" he asked them all aloud.
  "Answers," Buffy said, still glaring at Oliver.
  "Under duress?" he asked with a Committee look.
  "We'll take them however we can get them," she responded.
  Willow finally spoke up, rather nervously.  "If you'll give us your
guns, you can sit down."
  "We don't seem to have too much choice," Oliver noted.  He looked
the group over.  "We'll give them to him," he said, tilting his
head toward Giles.  He looked like someone who was unlikely to use a
gun, Oliver decided, and, as Giles was the adult of this group, it
seemed unlikely that any of these high schoolers would take the guns
from him without his permission.
  "Okay," Buffy nodded.  "Where is it?"
  "It's tucked into the back of my belt," Oliver told her.
  Buffy swallowed.  Feeling up a guy who looked so much like Giles
was, well, *weird*.  She retrieved the gun and gave it to Giles, who
very much wanted to hold it like a dead rat but managed to restrain
himself.
  "You might want to see if there are any more," Giles noted,
slightly apologetically.
  Buffy wanted to roll her eyes but didn't.  This guy, like Giles,
wasn't unattractive, but he was--*old*, at least as old as Giles.
Buffy wasn't much into older men, well, except for one 240-year-old
or so she could name.  She frisked Oliver but found nothing deadly.
  "And the others?" Giles asked.
  "I'm the only other person with a gun," Sam admitted unhappily,
realizing that it was probably for their mutual benefit to go
ahead and admit it.  Duncan took it from her and gave the gun to
Buffy.
  "I'll check her out, if you want," Xander offered.  Everyone just
stared at him; Sam gave him a look which practically set his hair on
fire.  "Or, I could just leave it to you," he conceded, gesturing to
Buffy.
  Buffy frisked the other three, too, to be sure.  "Why is this *my*
life?" she thought, searching the two women.  She got more pleasure
out of searching Duncan, though, than she'd expected and quickly
broke eye contact with him afterward.
  Giles let them go into his living room to sit down.  He held onto
the guns and kept a bit away from the newcomers.  "Now," he asked,
"would you care to tell us what you were doing to us this morning?"
  The newcomers exchanged looks.  "You remember?" Sydney asked.
  "That you called all of us and hung up, yeah, but what were you
doing?" Buffy pressed.
  The newcomers looked at each other again and seemed to realize
that they had little choice.  Oliver sighed and looked back at the
Sunnydale residents.  "How much do you know about computers?" he
asked.
  Buffy, Giles, and Xander looked at Willow.  "Uh--a bit," she
nodded, looking back at Oliver and the others.
  "How about VR?" he continued.
  "Virtual reality?" Willow asked.
  The Committee escapees nodded.
  "Well, there's this really cool game at the mall where you attack
dinosaurs, duck pterodactyls, that sort of thing," Xander supplied.
His friends looked at him.  "Okay, so I have no life."  He looked
back at Oliver.  "What, do you guys design video games or something?"
  Oliver smiled.  "No."
  "Most VR is pretty unrealistic, really," Willow put forth.  "I
mean, it's kind of two dimensional and boring."  Xander stared at
her.  "Well, except for games about dinosaurs, that is," she said
placatingly.
  "Not all VR is like that," Sydney looked at her.
  "You mean, like flight simulators?" Willow asked.
  Sydney smiled and leaned forward.  "Some of it goes a lot further
than that."
  Willow looked intrigued.
  Sydney looked at the other Sunnydale residents.  "Our father," she
pointed to Sam and herself, "created a system--VR.5--which allows
you to go into people's minds--into the subconscious, to be able to
find out what's hiding there."
  Giles looked horrified.  "You mean you can run around in someone's
mind without their consent?  Shuffle their thoughts?"
  "You two are sisters?" Xander asked, still stuck on other things.
  Duncan looked at him.  "They're twins, actually."
  Xander looked stunned.  16-year-old boy's fantasies of blonde twin
sisters were playing in his head.  "So, are you their brother?" he
asked, hopefully.
  "No," Duncan shook his head.  "I'm . . .," he looked at them.  "I'm
their childhood friend."  He smiled.
  Xander frowned.  Duncan, it seemed, had beaten him to his fantasies.
  "So, how are you related?" Buffy asked Oliver, remembering the kiss
she'd seen him plant on Sydney's head the night before.
  "I'm their . . . Keeper," he said.
  "Been there, seen those," Buffy said, smiling at Giles.
  Giles sighed.  "If we have their geneaology straight now, could
we return to the issue at hand?"  He gave the teenagers a hard stare
before looking at Sydney again.
  Sydney sighed and looked down at the floor.  "You could use it for
bad means," she agreed, "but that's what we're trying to keep from
happening."  She looked back up at them and filled them in on the
Committee and their flight from it.
  After listening to Sydney's explanation, Buffy asked, slightly
horrified, "So, you've been on the run for 2 years?"
  The Committee refugees nodded.
  "Bummer," Willow sympathized.
  Giles, though, still wanted more details.  "What exactly did you
do with us this morning?"
  Sydney told them what they'd been through and why they didn't
remember.  "You remember impressions, if you aren't encoded, but
you don't remember the details," she finished.
  Giles shook his head, gesturing frustratedly.  "But it's an
incredible invasion of privacy!"
  Oliver smiled slightly.  He remembered having this reaction
himself all too well.
  "I'm sorry we had to do it," Sydney tried to console Giles, "but
we *had* to make sure you weren't working for the Committee."
  Giles looked at the floor.  He wasn't happy with this explanation,
but he felt he understood.
  "The next question," Oliver continued the conversation, "is, just
who exactly are you, and why do you frequent graveyards?"
  Giles smiled, looked up at him, and then explained the nature of
Sunnydale and his background with Buffy.
  When he finished, the entire VR group seemed nonplussed.
  "I gotta hand it to you," Duncan nodded.  "Your lives make running
from the Committee seem trite."
  "This town is really that bad?" Oliver asked.
  "Believe it," Buffy assured him.
  Giles thought for a minute.  "I looked up some things, after you
left last night.  You thought James Crater might have some information
which would help you?"
  "Yes," Oliver answered.
  Giles nodded.  "Then, I think I have some leads we could follow up."
  "We have no desire to drag you into this," Oliver stated, looking at
the teenagers.
  "Hey, we're always up for a new experience," Buffy threw in.
  Willow looked at her.  "Why not?" she agreed.
  "Beats homework," Xander shrugged.
  "It would be best, then, if we divided up into groups," Giles
asserted.  "We'll cover more information that way."
  Duncan and Sydney smiled at each other.  This sounded like a
familiar plan.
  "Agreed," Oliver nodded.  "There's just one more thing first."
  "Which is?" Giles blinked.
  "May we have our guns back now?" Oliver requested.
  Giles, happy to be rid of the weapons, agreed.
[End of Part 3]



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail]
Subject: BUFFYFIC: "Synchronicity" (4/11)
Date: 25 Jul 1997 11:45:05 -0400

Hope this one will get through okay.  See Introduction for warnings,
etc.  I don't own these characters (with the exception of Crater, I
suppose), and no copyright infringements are intended.  Please send any
comments or requests for parts ("Ewww, parts") to:
[e-mail].

                       Synchronicity, Part 4
                       By Katherine Gilbert

  "So, this is your high school, huh?" Sydney asked, turning
around to look at the deserted hallway.
  "Uh, yeah," Willow said, leading her to the computer lab.
  "You've got a key?" Sydney questioned.
  "Yeah, Miss Calender--our computer teacher--lets us borrow
copies if we say we need the lab for projects," Willow informed
her, opening the door to allow them in.
  "That seems trusting," Sydney commented, as Willow turned on
the light and led her to one of the computers.
  "Well, I think she also has a thing for Giles," Willow smiled
back at her, "so she tends to help him out by proxy."
  "I can see how she would," Sydney said, sitting down at one of
the computers with Willow.
  "Help us out?" Willow asked.
  "Uh, no, have a thing for Giles," Sydney responded.
  Willow leaned a little closer to her.  "What's it like--travelling
around with a man for years?" she asked her confidentially.
  "With Oliver?" Sydney replied.  "It's . . . uh . . . eventful."
  Willow raised her eyebrows at her and smiled.
  "No--no, I didn't mean that," Sydney went on, flustered.  "I meant
running from the Committee's eventful."
  Willow was still smiling at her.  "You like him, don't you?"
  "Who?" Sydney asked.
  Willow rolled her eyes.  "Oliver!"
  "Oh, uh, no, Oliver's just a . . . a friend," she said, looking
away.
  "And nothing else?" Willow's eyebrows were still raised.
  "N-no," Sydney responded, still avoiding eye contact.
  Willow knew she had stumbled across something, and her desire for
pleasant romantic gossip drove her to press further.  "Is he that much
older than you?" she asked.
  "About ten years or so," Sydney shrugged.
  "That's not that big a difference," Willow suggested.
  "It's not that," Sydney said, looking at her hands.  "That's just
the physical age difference."  She looked rather sad.  "We're just
really different people."
  "He does seem kind of frightening at times," Willow agreed, "but
you really seem to trust him."
  Sydney had looked up at her.  "He's not scary, really. . . I mean,
I thought he was at first, too, but he's not, . . . though I don't
think I'd want to get on his bad side," she shrugged.
  Willow looked at her deeply.  "You really care about him, don't you?"
  Sydney looked away again.  "He's my protector," she said.
  Willow smiled and shook her head.  "That's *not* all there is to it."
She laughed slightly.  "I mean, Giles is Buffy's protector, in a way,
but he doesn't look at her the way that Oliver looks at you."
  Sydney sighed; she didn't know why she should trust this girl,
except that she reminded her a bit of herself at 16.  Also, she
couldn't see how baring her soul to Willow could ever get back to
Oliver.  "I'm . . . I'm attracted to Oliver," she said softly, "but
we're," she sighed again, "we're just too *different* to work
romantically.  I mean, he was an agent for years, and I'm a
computer hacker."  She looked back up at Willow.  "They don't mesh
well in that sense--not for us, at least."
  Willow looked a little disappointed.  She preferred to see happy
endings to her stories.  "So, no hearts and flowers, huh?"
  Sydney shook her head and smiled sadly.  "No."
  Willow thought for a second.  "Did you ever tell him about your
feelings?"
  Sydney blushed and remembered.  "Uh, yeah, we did have a sort of
conversation once."
  "And?" Willow asked.
  Sydney shrugged.  "It led us to where we are," she smiled.
  Willow smiled back.  "At least you still seem pretty close," she
observed.
  "Yeah," Sydney responded, looking down.  "Thank God."  She thought
for a second and looked back up at her.  "What about you and Xander?"
  Willow looked a bit taken aback.  "Did you find out about that
when you went in our heads this morning?" she asked, worriedly.
  Sydney smiled.  "No, I didn't need to get in your subconscious to
see that."
  "I'm that obvious?" Willow asked sheepishly.
  "Uh, well," Sydney responded; then, she nodded.  "Kind of."
  Willow blushed slightly.
  "So, is he a boyfriend?" Sydney asked.
  "No, no, just a friend," Willow answered quickly, looking away.
  "How long have you known him?" Sydney continued.
  "My whole life," Willow admitted.
  "And you've never dated?" Sydney pressed.
  "Well, when we were 5, we did," Willow looked back at her, "but
we broke up."
  Sydney smiled.  "And there hasn't been much of anyone since," she
stated.
  "Well, there was this guy--Malcolm," Willow told her, "but he turned
out to be a demon who'd taken on robot form."
  Sydney laughed.  "I know how you feel.  The one guy I actually went
out with in the last 10 years was really a serial killer."
  "Ooh, nasty," Willow agreed.  "So, if you didn't date, before you
started running from the Committee, what did you do?"
  "Played around on the computer, mostly," Sydney smiled.
  "I know the feeling," Willow smiled back.  "I mean, I get out a bit
more now that Buffy's come along, but . . ."
  Sydney smiled.  "You're close friends with her, aren't you?"
  Willow smiled more deeply.  "The best," she agreed.
  "So, it's Xander and Buffy," Sydney nodded.
  "And Giles," Willow threw in.  "I mean, not in quite the same way;
he doesn't hang out at The Bronze--our local nightclub," she clarified,
"but he's a friend, too. . . Y'know, sometimes, I think I spend more
time in the library than I do at home."
  Sydney looked evaluatingly at her.  "You care about him, don't you?"
  "Giles is . . .," Willow started, trying to put her feelings into
words.  "Giles is . . . comforting.  I mean, he can be really--I don't
know--petulant at times," she smiled, "but he teaches me a lot. . .
Sometimes, it almost seems like he's training *me* as well as Buffy--
not about killing vampires," she clarified quickly, "but about--how
do I explain this? . . . analyzing things from a more supernatural
point of view--about not letting perceived ideas of reality cloud
my view of what's really happening."
  "So, he's sort of a father figure?" Sydney asked.
  "No, it's not paternal, really," Willow thought, "kind of more like
a really close uncle or cousin . . . or older brother," she shrugged.
  "Or childhood friend," Sydney supplied.
  "Yeah," Willow smiled.  "Only my childhood would probably have
coincided with his graduate work."
  Sydney smiled and nodded.  "You feel safe around him."
  Willow nodded, smiling.  "So, now that you know all about me, what
about your friendships?" she asked.
  "You've already gotten more out of me about Oliver than almost anyone
else," Sydney looked at her.
  "Yeah, but what about Duncan and Sam?" Willow pressed.
  Sydney looked away.  "Sam and I were separated for 17 years," she
said softly.  "I--I thought she was dead."
  "That's terrible," Willow looked saddened.  "How did you find each
other again?"
  "That's kind of a long story," Sydney stated.  She sighed and then
looked up and told her about it.
  "So, what's happened between you since?" Willow asked quietly, when
Sydney had finished.  "Or am I getting too gigantically nosy?"
  Sydney smiled up at her.  "No," she said.  "We've been getting closer,"
she began, looking down again.  "I mean, it was kind of hard."  She
looked back up at Willow.  "We'd lived half our lives apart, been through
some horrible things without each other.  It took awhile to get to know
each other again, but we're learning; we're close," she smiled.
  "And Duncan?" Willow asked.
  "*My* childhood friend?" Sydney replied.  She thought about it.  "It
was actually the Committee that brought us together again, in a weird
way; once they started endangering me, he tried to protect me.  Before
that, we were still close, but we'd kind of lost touch--if that makes
any sense."  She shook her head.
  Willow smiled.  "A lot," she agreed.  "Xander and I have actually
gotten a *lot* closer, since Buffy, and the weird things she ends up
slaying, came to town.  So, do you like him?"
  "You're a real matchmaker, aren't you?" Sydney commented.
  "I just like to see happy relationships," Willow smiled. "Maybe to
make up fo the fact that I don't have one," she nodded.
  Sydney smiled back.  "Actually, Duncan's in love with Sam."
  "Well, Xander's really obsessed with Buffy," Willow responded, "but,
in my infinite lack of wisdom, that hasn't stopped me."
  "Is that what he thinks?" Sydney thought to herself.  She could
tell from watching Xander with Willow that there was more to his
feelings than that, but she decided to keep it to herself.  How long
it might take Xander to realize his feelings for Willow would have
to be seen--if he ever did.  It was better not to get the girl's
hopes up.
  "I'm not in love with Duncan," Sydney said verbally.  "I mean,
I care about him--deeply--, but I don't have any problems with his
relationship with Sam."  Sydney thought for a minute.  "Weren't we
supposed to be looking up some things about James Crater on the
computer?"
  "Oh, right," Willow agreed.  "I guess that was the reason we were
here."  She turned back to the machine and turned it on.  "Let's see
what Mr. Crater has lying in his past," she said, starting to hack
into various confidential systems.
  Sydney laughed softly.  "Me at sixteen," she thought, smiling.
"The resemblance is uncanny."
[End of Part 4]



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail]
Subject: BUFFYFIC: "Synchronicity" (5/11)
Date: 25 Jul 1997 11:45:53 -0400

See Introduction for warnings, etc.  No infringements of
copyright are intended with the following.  Please send
comments or requests to:  [e-mail].

                     Synchronicity, Part 5
                     By Katherine Gilbert

  "Have you cleaned this place recently?" Oliver asked, looking
around the Sunnydale High library.
  Giles looked up from the stack of papers he was sorting through
at the circulation desk.  "My library is spotless," he stated.
  Oliver walked over to a nearby shelf of books and blew on them
softly.  A small cloud of dust flew up.  He looked back at Giles,
raising an eyebrow.
  "Ah, those are books," he stated, resuming sorting, "they need
to be a bit dusty."
  Oliver continued taking in the room.  "Where did you go to school?"
he asked.
  "Oxford," Giles responded, not looking up.
  "Mmm," Oliver nodded, looking over a shelf of books.
  "And you?" Giles asked him, looking up.
  Oliver turned back to face him.  "Cambridge," he smiled.
  "I'm hardly surprised," Giles cocked an eyebrow at him before
resuming his sorting.
  Oliver continued smiling.  Giles was easy to bait, and Oliver was
rather enjoying it, but he decided that he really should get down to
business.  "Those are the former librarians' papers you have there?"
he asked.
  "Yes," Giles confirmed, not looking up.  "They go back through
several librarians, though, so I'm having a little trouble . . ."
He paused.  "That is, I'm not quite sure which are Crater's."
  "Where did you find them?" Oliver asked.
  "In the box I threw the contents of my new desk into when I arrived
here," Giles answered.
  "I'll help you sort them," Oliver said, descending the small flight
of stairs from the stacks onto the main floor.
  "No, thank you.  I'll manage," Giles replied.
  Oliver sighed.  "You might not know some of the clues if you come
across them," he contended.
  Giles looked up at him, annoyed.
  "Do you know what a `lamplighter' or `wetwork' is?" Oliver pressed.
"Would you know the Committee symbol if you saw it?"  He looked down
at the table near him.  "I'm sure you're very good at your job--at
both of your jobs, but you don't know the background to look for, here."
He focused on Giles again.
  Giles looked back, displeased, but he relented.  "Very well."  He
brought the papers over to the table where Oliver was, gave him half,
and sat down.
  Oliver sat across from him, and the two men read through papers
silently for several minutes.  Then, however, Oliver got bored with
the silence.  "How long have you been training Buffy?" he asked,
still reading papers.
  "Several months," Giles answered.
  "She seems a very--active girl," Oliver observed.
  Giles smiled slightly, still examining the papers.  "Yes," he agreed.
  "Does she ever take your orders?" Oliver asked.
  Giles looked up at him.  "I don't give her orders; I'm not a drill
instructor."
  Oliver looked up, disbelievingly.
  "I give her advice, at times," Giles supplied.
  "Does she ever take it?" Oliver asked.
  "Rarely," Giles replied, returning his attention to the papers.
  Oliver smiled.  "I know what you mean," he agreed, scanning the
papers again.
  "She does very well, though," Giles asserted.
  "Blind luck," Oliver murmured.
  "No, skill, actually, I think," Giles looked up again.  "She's very
talented, really."
  "I suppose I was thinking of my own charge," Oliver said, reading
through a page.  "Though she is very talented, too."  He nodded slightly.
  "Sydney is quite attractive, as well," Giles said, looking into the
distance.
  Oliver looked up at him.  "As is Buffy," he noted.
  Giles refocused on him, staring very hard.  "She's *16 years old*,"
he stressed, looking warningly at Oliver.
  "I wasn't planning on asking her to the senior prom," Oliver said.
Giles continued to glare.  "Or anywhere else," he clarified.  "Children
do *not* spark my desires."
  Giles nodded, deciding that Oliver meant what he said, and looked
back at the papers.
  "You're very protective of her, aren't you?" Oliver noted.
  Giles looked back up at him.  "That's my job."
  "No, it's more than that," Oliver observed.
  "As it is with you and Sydney?" Giles asked.
  Oliver looked more deeply at him.  "I must remember," he told
himself, "not to underestimate this man."
  "Sydney is a . . . friend," Oliver said, finally.
  "Nothing more?" Giles questioned, raising an eyebrow.
  "No," Oliver said, looking away.
  "Never let emotions interfere with duty?" Giles asked.
  Oliver laughed slightly in spite of himself and looked back up.
"If I believed that--if I'd carried out my duty--I'd have murdered
Sydney two years ago."
  Giles looked horrified.
  "Well, as you can see, I didn't," Oliver noted, "but those were my
last orders from the Committee."
  "I can see why you made them your last," Giles commented.
  "Yes," Oliver smiled.
  Giles looked at him more deeply.  "How did you ever end up working
for the Committee, anyway?" he asked.
  Oliver's smile faded.  "Family commitments."  He looked away.  "It
runs in families--father-to-son, mostly, but sometimes father-to-daughter;
that's how Sydney and Samantha got involved with it."
  "No hopes of escape, hmm?" Giles asked.
  Oliver looked up.  "Except by running or death?  No."
  Giles smiled and leaned back in his chair.  "I rather know what you
mean."  He twiddled a pen in his hands.  "My father and grandmother
were both Watchers as well.  I was told, from an early age, that I had
no real choice in the matter."
  Oliver smiled slightly.  "Perhaps we have more in common than I thought."
  Giles nodded slightly.  "Perhaps."
  "Do you ever want to escape?" Oliver asked.
  "I did when I was younger."  Giles ran a hand through his hair.  "I
thought, for many years, as well, that I might never be called on to
take up my duty."
  Oliver looked more deeply at him.  "Why was that?"
  "Well, the previous Watcher--Merrick--was doing very well for several
decades," Giles told him.
  "What happened then?" Oliver asked.
  "Um, he died," Giles said, sitting up again.
  "How?" Oliver asked.
  "It doesn't matter, really--danger of the job," Giles said, avoiding
eye contact.  He knew about Merrick's sacrifice to save Buffy, but he
had never mentioned it to her.  He certainly wasn't going to tell the
whole story to a stranger, however much they might have in common.
  Oliver backed off the subject.  He noted, however, that Watchers
seemed, like Committee operatives, to be in a hereditary line of work
which frequently had a deadly outcome.
  Both men resumed looking through the papers.
  After a minute, Oliver looked back up.  "You said that you wanted
to escape when you were younger?"
  "Yes," Giles said, still reading.
  "What changed your mind?" Oliver inquired.
  Giles continued looking at the page.  "Buffy," he said softly.
  "You care about her that much?" Oliver asked.
  "It's my duty to protect her," Giles noted, switching pages.
  "That's not all, though, is it?" Oliver pressed.
  Giles sighed and looked up.  "Buffy is a . . . a fascinating
creature," he smiled.  "She has a destiny which it would be abusive
to ask a full-grown, emotionally-mature adult to take on, yet she
handles it with amazing ease. . . I can't always claim to understand
her, but it is the adults' duty in this world to look after the welfare
of the children--to protect them."  He twisted the ring on his pinkie,
as he spoke.  "My duty is to train her, to prepare her, to make the
hellish destiny she must face every day easier--to explain the unpleasant
and, frequently, unbelievable truths of life to her, so she is prepared
to face any danger which may come her way."  He laughed slightly.  "It's
not much different than any parent's job, really; I just don't have to
live with her."
  "You see her as a daughter, don't you?" Oliver asked.
  "In a sense," Giles agreed.  "As a maddening, confusing, and wholly
uncontrollable . . . and, yet, a brilliant, attractive, and wonderfully
*vibrant* child, yes."  He smiled.  "Although I'm not sure I can take
any credit for her successes."  He cocked his head.  "I just try to keep
her from reeking too much havoc--or, rather, I make sure she only reeks
it in the proper places."
  Oliver smiled.  "Do you care as much about other children?"
  Giles stopped smiling.  "No," he said and resumed reading the papers
in front of him.
  Oliver laughed softly.  "And Willow and Xander?" he asked.
  Giles looked back up, smiling.  "Oh, Willow is a lovely girl.  She'll
make quite a beautiful woman, someday."  He nodded.
  "Another daughter?" Oliver inquired.
  "No," Giles replied, "more of a young friend--a sister, perhaps--
although one who is about a quarter century younger than myself."  He
nodded rapidly, looking up at Oliver, before looking at the papers
again.
  Oliver smiled again.  "And Xander?"
  Giles looked back up.  "Xander is . . .," he stopped himself from
saying "annoying."  "Xander is well intentioned and sometimes quite
kind."
  "And other times?" Oliver questioned.
  "Other times, he is a 16-year-old boy," Giles returned.  "I hate
testosterone."  He looked down and switched pages again.
  Oliver laughed softly.
  Giles looked back up again.  "And you--what about Sydney?"
  "What about her?" Oliver asked, expressionlessly.
  "Sydney isn't a child," Giles continued.  "Is she really only a friend?"
  Oliver sighed.  "Sydney may be in her thirties physically, but in her
soul . . ."  He paused, smiling slightly.  "From what I've seen of her,
Willow is far more worldly and sophisticated than Sydney."  He looked
down at the table, his smile faded.  "Sydney's an innocent.  No amount
of fear or flight or . . . torture can take that from her."
  Giles nodded but said, "So your answer to my question is . . .?"
  Oliver looked up at him.  "If you hadn't noticed, I'm not an innocent.
Any relationship I could have with Sydney, then, beyond friendship or
my protecting her, could only end with my hurting her.  There are
darknesses inside me which she will never have and could never fully
understand . . ., and I don't care to try to initiate her to them."
  Giles nodded sadly, and they both returned to their work.
  After a few more minutes, however, Giles looked up again and said,
"What about Samantha and Duncan?  What's your relationship with them
like?"
  Oliver smiled and looked up.  He was beginning to wonder if they
would ever get any work done.  "Well, Samantha has stopped trying to
kill me," he commented.
  Giles raised an eyebrow.
  "It's a long story," Oliver assured him.  "We've learned to trust
each other over the last two years, and, since we've travelled together
a few times, we understand each other a bit more, as well.  I'm not
sure if we'll ever be particularly close, however."  He shook his head.
"And Duncan . . .," he pondered.  "Duncan has, fortunately, long ago
forgiven me for the circumstances we met under."
  "Which were?" Giles asked.
  "He thought I'd tortured Sydney," Oliver said.
  Giles looked horrified.  "You hadn't, I hope."
  Oliver smiled slightly.  "No."  He stopped smiling.  "She had been
tortured but not by me."  He nodded.  "Duncan's a good man.  He's not
the best person to have in a firefight, admittedly, but he's intelligent,
trustworthy, and kind.  Also," he went on, "he would do almost anything
it took to protect Sydney or Samantha."
  "It doesn't sound like too bad a life you have, given your company,"
Giles noted.
  "If you have to be on the run constantly, they're a good group of
companions to have," Oliver agreed.
  Both men looked at each other, smiled briefly, and went back to their
research.
[End of Part 5]



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail]
Subject: BUFFYFIC: The Weapon:  Part VI/?
Date: 27 Jul 1997 23:07:55 -0400

Title:  The Weapon
Rating:  PG
Summarry:  Xander's gone, replaced by a future version of himself.
Willow's gone Rambo, determined to save Xander or die trying.  Buffy,
Angel, Willow, and SuperXander have gone to purgatory to save Xander.
Disclaimer:  Buffy, Xander, Willow, and Angel do not belong to me.  If they
did, I would be a much richer man.  Everything else here is mine tho', so
steal it and get yo' @$$ whupped.  Whoo-ah!

*****

Purgatory.

It's the place between here and there, between life and death, between
heaven and hell.  It's a never ending wasteland of jagged mountains,
shifting black sands, and burning skies.  What little plant life there is
almost, if not more, dangerous than the demons, monsters, madmen, and lost
souls that infest its landscape.  In short, it's a crappy place to live,
and a damn awful place to visit.  There are, however, a few rituals that
allow one to cross over, come from our world to this god forsaken place.
No sane being would ever use them without a *very* good reason.

The continually howling winds seemed to stop still for a moment, as a
glowing ring of fire blasted into existence.  Apparently, someone had a
very good reason.  Pray for them.

*****

The portal spit Buffy Summers out, and she struck the sandy ground with a
thud.

"Well," she said, as she spit out a mouthful of sand, "that was pleasant."
"Yeah," said Angel, as he dragged himself up off the ground, "almost as
much fun as being put through a blender."
"Have I mentioned," said Xander, as he dusted himself off, "how much I
*hate* interdimensional travel?"
"C'mon," said Willow, as she cocked he shotgun, "We've got to get going."
"Whooooa there cowgirl!" said Xander.  "I'm the expert on Purgatory.  I
lived here for ten years remember?  Give me minute to get my bearings
before you go marching off.  With the Sphere's help, I *should* be able to
locate Karakis' castle."
Willow gave him a half-irritated half-worried look.  "All right," she said,
exasperated, "just hurry ok?!"  Xander nodded, and began scouting around
the perimeter of the area, holding the sphere out in front of him.  He
concentrated on Karakis, and let the Sphere do the work.  Soon, he felt the
Sphere start tugging away from him.  He opened his eyes, and saw that the
Weapon was glowing green.
"This way." said Xander, gesturing towards the East.  Soon the group began
walking, Xander taking point, Willow just behind him, Buffy and Angel
taking up the rear.

As Buffy looked over at Angel, she noticed that he was wincing, and his
entire body looked tense, tight.

"Hey," she said, as she nudged him with her elbow, "what's wrong?"  Angel
responded with a quick upwards jerk of his head.  Buffy looked up, and
could barely make out a red sun, burning high above them through the ebon
clouds and swirling sand.
"Oh!" she said, "are you ok?"
"It's... it's not normal sunlight," replied Angel, "I mean, it's not from
earth's sun.  This place... it's tainted with evil.  The sun here doesn't
burn, it just... stings."
"Well, I guess we should be thankful for small blessings."
"I'm not sure how much of a blessing it is.  Something's wrong here.  This
place is supposed to be the void, the abyss... but something's tainted it.
Changed it from a nothing to a something.  An *evil* something."

Buffy and Angel's conversation was cut short by Xander, who stopped short.
"Shh!" he whispered, tersely, "Something's here!"

The whole group paused, standing motionless quiet.  Time passed around
them.  Finally, Buffy broke the silence.

"Must've been nothing," she said, "c'mon lets--" before she could finish
her sentence, a white tentacle shot out of the sand, wrapped itself around
Buffy, and dragged her underground, screaming.  Angel leapt for her tried
to grab her hand, but failed.  The Slayer was gone.

*****

End Part VI

*****

Thus was it written.  Now back, and be sated, unwieldy fiends!

That's my simple way of saying, I wrote part 6, so you can stop bugging me
about it now :-)

--Viashino--




-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail]
Subject: BUFFYFIC: The Weapon:  Part VI/?
Date: 27 Jul 1997 23:07:55 -0400

Title:  The Weapon
Rating:  PG
Summarry:  Xander's gone, replaced by a future version of himself.
Willow's gone Rambo, determined to save Xander or die trying.  Buffy,
Angel, Willow, and SuperXander have gone to purgatory to save Xander.
Disclaimer:  Buffy, Xander, Willow, and Angel do not belong to me.  If they
did, I would be a much richer man.  Everything else here is mine tho', so
steal it and get yo' @$$ whupped.  Whoo-ah!

*****

Purgatory.

It's the place between here and there, between life and death, between
heaven and hell.  It's a never ending wasteland of jagged mountains,
shifting black sands, and burning skies.  What little plant life there is
almost, if not more, dangerous than the demons, monsters, madmen, and lost
souls that infest its landscape.  In short, it's a crappy place to live,
and a damn awful place to visit.  There are, however, a few rituals that
allow one to cross over, come from our world to this god forsaken place.
No sane being would ever use them without a *very* good reason.

The continually howling winds seemed to stop still for a moment, as a
glowing ring of fire blasted into existence.  Apparently, someone had a
very good reason.  Pray for them.

*****

The portal spit Buffy Summers out, and she struck the sandy ground with a
thud.

"Well," she said, as she spit out a mouthful of sand, "that was pleasant."
"Yeah," said Angel, as he dragged himself up off the ground, "almost as
much fun as being put through a blender."
"Have I mentioned," said Xander, as he dusted himself off, "how much I
*hate* interdimensional travel?"
"C'mon," said Willow, as she cocked he shotgun, "We've got to get going."
"Whooooa there cowgirl!" said Xander.  "I'm the expert on Purgatory.  I
lived here for ten years remember?  Give me minute to get my bearings
before you go marching off.  With the Sphere's help, I *should* be able to
locate Karakis' castle."
Willow gave him a half-irritated half-worried look.  "All right," she said,
exasperated, "just hurry ok?!"  Xander nodded, and began scouting around
the perimeter of the area, holding the sphere out in front of him.  He
concentrated on Karakis, and let the Sphere do the work.  Soon, he felt the
Sphere start tugging away from him.  He opened his eyes, and saw that the
Weapon was glowing green.
"This way." said Xander, gesturing towards the East.  Soon the group began
walking, Xander taking point, Willow just behind him, Buffy and Angel
taking up the rear.

As Buffy looked over at Angel, she noticed that he was wincing, and his
entire body looked tense, tight.

"Hey," she said, as she nudged him with her elbow, "what's wrong?"  Angel
responded with a quick upwards jerk of his head.  Buffy looked up, and
could barely make out a red sun, burning high above them through the ebon
clouds and swirling sand.
"Oh!" she said, "are you ok?"
"It's... it's not normal sunlight," replied Angel, "I mean, it's not from
earth's sun.  This place... it's tainted with evil.  The sun here doesn't
burn, it just... stings."
"Well, I guess we should be thankful for small blessings."
"I'm not sure how much of a blessing it is.  Something's wrong here.  This
place is supposed to be the void, the abyss... but something's tainted it.
Changed it from a nothing to a something.  An *evil* something."

Buffy and Angel's conversation was cut short by Xander, who stopped short.
"Shh!" he whispered, tersely, "Something's here!"

The whole group paused, standing motionless quiet.  Time passed around
them.  Finally, Buffy broke the silence.

"Must've been nothing," she said, "c'mon lets--" before she could finish
her sentence, a white tentacle shot out of the sand, wrapped itself around
Buffy, and dragged her underground, screaming.  Angel leapt for her tried
to grab her hand, but failed.  The Slayer was gone.

*****

End Part VI

*****

Thus was it written.  Now back, and be sated, unwieldy fiends!

That's my simple way of saying, I wrote part 6, so you can stop bugging me
about it now :-)

--Viashino--




-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail]
Subject: BUFFYFIC: "Synchronicity" (6a/11)
Date: 28 Jul 1997 10:34:49 -0400

See Introduction for warnings, etc.  No infringement of any sort
is intended with the following.  Please (please? please?) send any
comments or requests to: [e-mail].

                     Synchronicity, Part 6a
                      By Katherine Gilbert

  "So, how did you become the Slayer, anyway?" Samantha asked,
as she walked along the road with Buffy.
  "Just lucky, I guess," Buffy answered.
  "No, I mean, how did you come to have the job?" Samantha continued.
  "Well, there was this old guy, talk of a big, hairy mole on my
shoulder, and a cute slaying demonstration in a graveyard at night,"
Buffy replied.
  Sam looked at her.  "What?"
  "It's kind of a long story," Buffy shook her head.  "It's some
big destiny, `you-are-the-chosen-one' type thing, though."
  "Do you like it?" Samantha questioned.
  "Well, it wasn't really my first career choice," Buffy told her,
"but I've kind of gotten used to it."
  "You really hate it," Sam observed.
  Buffy laughed.  "Pretty much," Buffy agreed.  "I mean, why can't I
be a normal high schooler?  Why can't my big concerns be pimples,
popularity, and avoiding lecherous gym coaches, instead of vampires,
demons, and the perils of mystical convergence?"
  Sam looked back ahead and smiled slightly.  "Enforced responsibility
stinks, doesn't it?"
  "Tell me about it," Buffy nodded.  Then, she looked at her.  "What
do you know about this?" she asked.
  "I know what it's like to have your innocence stolen from you," Sam
said softly.
  "How?" Buffy asked.
  Sam sighed.  "When I was 12, the Committee kidnapped me and my father.
They told us that Sydney and my mother were dead."  She shook her head
and looked at the ground.  "I shut down," she said quietly.  "I couldn't
handle it."
  "God, who could?" Buffy pointed out.
  "Well, you have," Sam answered, looking up at her.
  "Oh, please," Buffy retorted.  "I still have my family.  Okay, they
thought I was nuts for a while," she shrugged, "but I had them.  I
wasn't in a strange environment--well, I saw some sides to it I hadn't
before, but it was still the same place."  She took a breath.  "Look,
the point I'm trying to make--even if I'm not doing a very good job
of it--is that, yeah, my life changed, but the people and places were
the same.  I mean, you were just swept away with a bunch of Commando
creeps, right?"
  Sam smiled.  "I do remember thinking that I'd never seen so many men
in suits before in my life."
  "Precisely," Buffy smiled.
  Sam looked at her.  "You didn't have *all* the same people around,
though, after your destiny took hold, did you?"
  "Well, no," Buffy admitted.  "Most of my friends were . . . well,
before I became the Slayer, my life was pretty . . . superficial.  I
mean, my biggest concerns were whether I was doing the right, cool
things and labelling and keeping away from the geeks."  She shuddered.
"I wasn't exactly deep.  Anyway, those friends, when I started hunting
vampires, ran away like . . . like they'd just found themselves in the
middle of a Sears polyester sale."  She shook her head.
  "So, you really didn't have anyone around except for your freaked-out
parents?" Sam pressed.
  "No--no," Buffy answered.  "There was my Watcher . . ."
  "Giles?" Sam inquired.
  Buffy looked at her and then broke eye contact, staring at the ground.
"No, someone else."
  Sam looked at her evaluatingly.
  "There was a new friend I made, though, too," Buffy went on to avoid
explaining, "Pike."
  "Pike?" Sam asked.  "Like the fish?"
  Buffy laughed softly and looked at her.  "He was a good guy."
  "What happened to him?" Sam questioned.
  "Well, he had a life to live, and I had high school to attend."
Buffy smiled sadly at her.  "They didn't exactly mesh."
  "So, he left?" Sam asked.
  "He went off to do some supernatural research or something," Buffy
responded.  "I think watching vampires die really influenced him."  She
looked ahead and smiled.  "I still get a card from him every once in a
while.  He uses a fake name on them to get them past my mom; she blames
him for `leading me astray'."
  Sam looked deeply at her for a minute.  "I think you came through it
all better than I did."
  Buffy looked back at her.  "Look, you can't blame yourself.  You never
asked for it . . ., and you seem to have come out of it okay."
  Sam gave her a hard stare.
  "Or not," Buffy said timidly.
  Sam looked at the ground in front of her.  "There's just a lot I'm
still working through."
  Buffy gave a half smile and nodded.  "I know the feeling," she agreed,
looking back at the road.
  They walked quietly for a few minutes.
  "So, if Giles isn't your first Watcher," Sam said finally, "how'd you
end up with him?"
  "He was waiting for me when I got to Sunnydale," Buffy told her.
  "You get a new Watcher whenever you move?" Sam looked at her.
  Buffy shook her head, avoiding eye contact.  "I hope not," she replied
quietly.
  "What?" Sam wondered.
  Buffy looked up at her briefly.  "Never mind."
  "So, what's Giles like?" Sam asked.
  "I don't know," Buffy replied.  She thought about it.  "He's
knowledgeable. . . He tries to look out for me."  She sighed.  "He can
be kind of a pain, though.  I mean, he makes dating *hell*."
  Sam looked at her.  "He does?"
  "Well, I guess the job does, really," Buffy conceded.  "He's just
usually the one who tells me I need to be somewhere to slay something."
She laughed softly.  "Kind of hard to have a social life, when you've
got to be constantly telling your date, `Uh, honey, I can't see you
tonight; I have to go slay the undead.'"
  Sam laughed.  "I guess most men wouldn't understand."
  "No, most don't," Buffy agreed.
  Sam thought she had heard something in Buffy's tone and looked at
her.  "Are there some who do?" she asked.
  Buffy sighed.  "Well, there is this one guy--Angel," she admitted,
"but we can't really be together."  She looked sad.
  "Why not?" Sam pressed.
  Buffy looked at her.  "Because he's 240 years old, and he's a
vampire."
  Sam looked a little surprised.  "I guess that would make it difficult,"
she agreed.  She thought for a minute, looking away.  "What does Giles
think of this?" she asked, looking back at her.
  Buffy smiled sadly, looking away.  "He's been really good about it,
actually.  He's never gotten angry or anything."  She shook her head.
"There's not much anyone can do about it, though."
  "So, do you blame him for your destiny?" Sam asked.
  Buffy looked at her, remembering Giles' earlier words to Oliver, when
she was holding a stake on the newcomer.  "No, I don't, really. . . I
think I did, when I first came here, but . . ."  She trailed off.  "He's
been good to me, really.  He doesn't usually push me as hard as I push
myself."  She laughed a little.  "He's certainly understood better than
my parents did.  He's pretty cool," she nodded.
  Sam looked deeply at her.  "Do you ever talk to him about your feelings
--your fears?"
  "Nah, not usually," Buffy replied.  She thought for a minute, looking
off into the distance.  "Sometimes, I wonder if we're both so frightened
of getting the other killed--I mean, of the other getting killed," she
corrected herself quickly, "that we're afraid to talk too deeply to
each other."  She realized, suddenly, that she had just told Sam a lot
more than she had ever meant to.  "So, what about you?" she changed the
subject.  "If you were separated from your sister so early, how'd
you ever find her again?"
  "Luck," Sam replied, "--a little courage."
  "How long were you apart?" Buffy continued.
  "17 years," Sam told her.
  "Yikes!" Buffy sympathized.  "So, how do you two get along now?"
  "Pretty well," Sam said, "but it took a while for us to rebuild
a friendship--especially since we were just kids when they split us
up."
  "I'll bet," Buffy agreed.  She thought for a second and looked at
Sam.  "What about Duncan?  You were separated from him, too, right?
How'd you two renew your friendship?"
  Sam smiled.  "Like it had never been broken," she said.  She
looked at Buffy.  "Duncan and I picked up again pretty quickly."
  Buffy grinned.  "So, you two are a couple?" she asked.
  Sam smiled and looked away.  "Kind of."
  "Cool," Buffy responded.  Then, she thought about frisking
Duncan earlier; she was a little jealous.
  They were silent for another few minutes, before Buffy spoke
again.  "What about Oliver?  What's he like?"
  Sam thought for a minute.  "Oliver . . . Oliver is an ex-Committee
man."
  "You don't like him," Buffy observed.
  "He can be trusted," Sam returned.
  "But it's kind of a hard-won trust," Buffy noted.
  "Yeah," Sam agreed.
  Buffy thought for a second, remembering Oliver's reaction to seeing
Sydney the night before.  "So, what's his relationship with Sydney
like?"
  Sam looked at her cautiously.  "They're friends."
  "That's all?" Buffy asked.
  Sam smiled.  "That's all he'll let them be."
  Buffy frowned.  "Too bad."
  Sam looked forward again and pondered.  "It's probably for the
best."
[End of Part 6a; 6b is next :)]



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail]
Subject: BUFFYFIC: "Synchronicity" (6b/11)
Date: 28 Jul 1997 10:37:31 -0400

<Grumble>.  Two sections of one part got separated on the digest
again.  Sorry about that.  See Introduction for warnings, etc.  No
infringement of any sort is intended with the following.  Please
send any comments or questions to: [e-mail].

                     Synchronicity, Part 6b
                      By Katherine Gilbert

  By this time, the two women had passed by much of the town's
graveyard and were approaching the mortuary.  Buffy didn't look too
happy upon seeing the building.
  "Spent too much time here?" Sam asked, seeing her expression; she
remembered finding Giles near the building the night before.
  "I had a really unpleasant date here, once," Buffy replied.
  Sam stared at her.
  "Don't ask," Buffy responded.
  "So, why do we need to break in here to see the coroner's records,
again?" Sam asked.  "Haven't they computerized, yet?"
  "They did," Buffy explained.  "But Willow says they only started
a few months ago.  They haven't gotten around to scanning all the old
records yet."
  "Lovely," Sam sighed.
  When they were at the front door of the building, Buffy prepared to
punch off the padlock.
  "Wait!" Sam said.  "Let's try subtlety, instead."  She took a hairpin
from her jacket pocket and easily picked the lock.
  "How'd you do that?" Buffy asked, wishing she could try it.
  "Training," Sam replied, unhappily.
  "You were trained to be a burglar--or a secret agent?" Buffy
inquired, intrigued.
  "A Committee operative--unfortunately," Sam replied.
  "Did they force you?" Buffy questioned, frowning.
  Sam nodded.  "All part of my colorful past," she said, entering the
building.
  "Been there, done that," Buffy murmured, following her.
  Buffy and Sam found the file room and split up the folders from the
past summer.
  "Okay," Sam said, "any middle-aged, white men you find, hand them to
me.  I saw Crater's image in VR, so I hope I could recognize him."
  "In this form?"  Buffy held up a picture to her from one of the
folders.
  Sam looked disgusted.  "This is going to be a really unpleasant job,"
she noted.  She looked back at the huge stack of folders in front of
them. "This is only 4 months' worth?"
  "The joys of a hellmouth," Buffy grimaced.
  The two women went through folders quietly for about 20 minutes.
Buffy was finding hints of deaths from causes weirder than even she
was used to.
  Sam slapped closed a folder and rubbed her eyes.  She looked down at
the floor for a minute, thinking.  "Do you ever envy Willow and Xander?"
she asked, finally.
  "That they don't have to go through this stuff?  Yeah," Buffy replied,
holding up a folder before tossing it onto her discarded stack.
  "No."  Sam shook her head.  "I mean, that they don't have to face down
the same stuff that you do--that they never had to be trained."
  Buffy stopped going through folders and looked down for a minute.
"Yeah," she said quietly.  "I mean, I really love them both, but . . .
they'll just never know quite what it's like."
  Sam nodded.  "Yeah."
  Buffy thought for another minute, playing with the edge of a folder.
"Y'know why else I envy them?  Their friendship--their knowledge of
each other.  I mean," she said, looking up, "they both love me, and
we're real close, but they've been close for so long!"  She looked
back down.  "Sometimes, I just kind of feel that I get included by
default."
  Sam smiled sadly, looking down.  "I know.  Sydney and Duncan are
like that, too."  She shook her head.  "They were together for so long
when I was away; it's almost like they share a past which got stolen
from me.  They try to understand what I've been through, but they've
never been there; they can never really know."  She looked up at Buffy.
  Buffy nodded.  "Yeah . . . They help, and they're great!" Buffy
started, gesturing with her hands.  "But, if the world gets sucked into
Hell tomorrow, I'm going to be the one who takes the blame; I'm the one
with the destiny."  She looked back down.  "They've never been through
that. . . They've never lost all of their friends and had their parents
think they were criminals, because they were doing their jobs.  They just
. . . They've gone through some pretty weird stuff, but they just can't
know what that's like."
  Sam smiled.  "Duncan and Syd are the same.  I mean, they've been
through some awful stuff, especially Syd, but . . .  but they never
got the training."  She shook her head.  "They'll *never* know what
that's like."
  Buffy looked back up at her.  "It really stinks, doesn't it?" she
said with a half-smile.
  "Yeah."  Sam nodded.
  Then, the two women returned to searching files.
[End of Part 6]



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail]
Subject: BUFFYFIC: "Synchronicity" (7/11)
Date: 28 Jul 1997 10:38:28 -0400

See Introduction for warnings, etc.  No infringement of any
sort is intended with the following.  Please send any comments
or requests to: [e-mail].

                        Synchronicity, Part 7
                        By Katherine Gilbert

  "This is where you guys hang out, huh?" Duncan asked, sitting at
a table on the upper level of The Bronze with Xander.
  "Pretty much," Xander responded, looking at and turning around
the glass of Coke in front of him.
  "It doesn't really seem like much of a place for a high school
librarian to hang out in," Duncan suggested.
  Xander stopped playing with his glass and looked up at him.
"Giles doesn't hang out here."
  "I meant Crater--our reason for being here," Duncan clarified,
looking briefly at Xander before starting to watch the club's door.
  "Oh, right," Xander remembered.  He thought for a second.  "Are
you sure you'll recognize this guy you saw here with Crater in VR,
if he comes?"
  "I hope so," Duncan shrugged.  "Otherwise, there's not a lot of
reason to be here."
  Xander tapped the rim of his glass a few times.  He then examined
Duncan, who was still staring at the door.  "So, how exactly did you
end up on the run with blonde twins, again?" he asked him, finally.
  Duncan laughed softly, looked at him, and cocked his head.
"Coincidence?" he pondered.  "A grand design in an ordered universe
which we too often perceive as being random?  Some strange spell I
incurred without knowing it?"  He shrugged.  "Weird deeds from another
lifetime?"
  Xander put up a hand to stop him.  "I was looking for something a
bit more terrestrial, actually."
  "Oh," Duncan responded, pondering.  "Then, I guess I kind of got
sucked in when Oliver was helping Sydney escape from the Committee."
  "So, Oliver brought you along?" Xander asked, wondering suddenly
if he'd made a big mistake in figuring out the relationships of this
group.
  Duncan looked at him quizzically, Xander's assumption going right
past him.  "No, Sydney did.  She," he smiled, ". . . she said she
didn't want to leave me behind."
  "Oh," Xander nodded, disappointed.  Then, he remembered Oliver and
Sydney's greeting in the graveyard.  "Uh, I kind of got the impression,
though, that Oliver and Sydney were sort of together."
  Duncan nodded.  "They usually travel together, it's true."
  Xander was looking completely confused.  He was suddenly wondering
whether the relationships in this group were a bit kinkier than he had
earlier imagined.  "So, uh," he said slowly, "you and Syd, and Oliver
and Syd, are um . . ."
  Duncan looked puzzledly at him, before Xander's line of thought became
clear to him.  "Oh, no, no," Duncan shook his head slightly, "it's not
a romantic thing."  ("God, what a weird triangle that would make," he
thought.)  "Syd and I are just really old friends."
  "So, how does Oliver work into this?" Xander asked.
  "Oliver," Duncan thought, "Oliver travels with Syd, for the most part
--he looks out for her."
  "So, he and Syd aren't involved?" Xander tried to clarify.
  Duncan shook his head.  "No . . . though I'm not sure I'd say those
feelings aren't involved sometimes."
  "So, they *are* involved."  Xander was beginning to feel like he was
on a merry-go-round, a feeling the uninitiated frequently got from
talking to Duncan.
  "No," Duncan said.  "There's nothing going on between them."  He looked
more closely at Xander.  "That doesn't mean, though, that there can't be
some feelings there--you know that, right?"
  "Hey, I'm sixteen," Xander replied.  "Around me, if there are feelings
but no relationship, it's usually because only one person has those
feelings."
  Duncan grinned. "I've been there, . . . but there *are* times when
the relationship just can't happen, even if both people do care."
  "I guess so," Xander agreed.  He thought for a minute.  "Does this
mean Sydney's free, then?" he asked hopefully.
  Duncan smiled and looked down.  "I think Syd's in enough trouble
without starting to date minors."  He looked back up.  "Besides, you've
got two beautiful women around you all the time; maybe you should look
at them more."
  "I do, believe me," Xander assured him.  "But Buffy won't give me the
time of day, romantically; she's got this thing for this . . . older
guy."
  "What about Willow?" Duncan questioned. "She seems like a pretty
interesting person."
  Xander thought about it.  "Yeah, I guess she is."
  "She's beautiful, too," Duncan suggested.
  Xander seemed to think about it consciously for the first time.
"Yeah," he nodded.
  "Why don't you ask her out?" Duncan questioned.
  "Oh, but, she's just an old friend," Xander claimed.
  "Is that really all she is?" Duncan pressed.
  "Uh, yeah," Xander said, looking away.  "So, tell me more about
you and Syd," he changed the subject.
  Duncan smiled.  "Well, I used to live on a roof near her apartment."
  "You mean, you had, like a top-floor apartment," Xander tried to
clarify, looking back at him.
  "No, I lived on the roof," Duncan nodded.
  Xander stared at him.
  "Well, I had a pup tent for the few times it rained, and Syd let me
use her shower," Duncan nodded again.
  Xander started picturing, years in the future, Willow and him
living the same way.  It made an interesting vision, except that, he
decided, in 10 years or so, Willow would probably have a fellowship
at M.I.T.
  "Y'know," Xander said finally, gesturing with his hand, "that's
kind of weird."
  Duncan smiled at him.  "It worked for us."
  Xander shook his head for a second to clear it; he was beginning
to wonder if Duncan wasn't blowing out a few of his braincells.  He
thought for a minute.  "So, what about Sam--how's she fit in with
you?"
  "Ah," Duncan replied.  "Sam's . . . Sam's kind of a childhood
sweetheart."
  "Really?" Xander looked at him, wide-eyed.  "And now?"
  Duncan smiled.  "Fortunately, 17 years didn't pull us too far
apart."
  Xander looked confused, again.  "What?"
  "Sam and I were apart for 17 years," Duncan informed him.  "The
Committee kidnapped her and her father."
  "Ouch," Xander replied.  He paused for a second.  "I'm liking these
Committee guys less and less," he asserted.
  "Welcome to our club," Duncan grinned.
  They were quiet for a few minutes.  Duncan watched the door, as
the club started to fill up a bit, the early-night crowd coming in.
He sighed and looked back at Xander.  "So, what about Giles--what do
you think of him?"
  Xander shrugged.  "He's a nice enough guy, I guess."  He thought
for a second.  "He kind of monopolizes Buffy and Willow's time, though.
I mean, sometimes I think they should just forward their mail to that
library."
  "They take this whole Slayer thing pretty seriously," Duncan observed.
  "Well, yeah, it's partly that," Xander agreed, "but Willow was hanging
out with Giles before Buffy even arrived--long before she knew vampires
existed outside of Tom Cruise movies."
  "Are you jealous?" Duncan asked.
  "Well, no!" Xander shook his head.  "It's just . . . she and Giles
seemed to strike up this relationship from the first time they met--
like they have some sort of soul-bound connection or something."
  Duncan looked a little surprised.
  "Oh, I don't mean some sort of Woody Allen-Soon Li sort of thing,"
Xander clarified.  He shook his head.  "They're just friends. It's
just a connection I don't quite understand."
  Duncan smiled.  "So, what about your relationship with him?  Do you
have any connection with him that isn't through Willow and Buffy?"
  "Well, he got me to do some research with him a while ago," Xander
shuddered.
  Duncan looked confused by Xander's reaction.  "What happened?"
  "We did research," Xander answered.  "What--that's not enough to
shudder about?"
  "Don't like homework, huh?" Duncan asked.
  "What red-blooded, American boy does, unless it involves hanging out
in the girls' locker room?" Xander told him.
  "Does much of your homework involve that?" Duncan wondered.
  "No!  That's why I don't like homework," Xander answered.
  Duncan smiled.  "Did you ever try learning something just to impress
someone?"
  "No," Xander replied, bemused.
  "I once memorized the entirety of the balcony scene from *Romeo and
Juliet* to impress this girl--this was in high school," Duncan remembered.
  "Did she like it?" Xander asked.
  "Yeah," Duncan smiled.  "She liked it even better when I substituted
her name for Juliet's."
  Xander seemed impressed.  "I've got to spend more time doing research,"
he said.
  "Score one more convert to homework," Duncan thought, smiling.  He
looked back down at the club's entrance.  "Wait, I see him," Duncan
pointed.  He started toward the stairs to get to the man.
  Xander looked at the man Duncan had pointed out.  "Oh my God," he
said quietly.  "Duncan, be careful how you approach him," he called
out at his companion, following quickly.
  Duncan had made his way down the stairs and approached the man,
trying to look both friendly and professional; the first look was easy
for him, the second--almost impossible.
  The man he approached decided he wasn't particularly sure of Duncan's
intentions.  He turned around and coolly weaved his way through the
patrons and back out the club's door.  Duncan followed.
  Xander saw the man lead Duncan outside the club, where he knew there
were only dark, blind alleys waiting for him.  "Oh God," he breathed
before following.
  Duncan caught up with the man in an alley near the club.  The need
for safety wasn't a natural instinct in Duncan; he had a desire, even
after years of running from the Committee, to think the best of others.
"Excuse me!" he called again.
  The man, who appeared to be a few years younger than Duncan, turned
to face him.  "What do you want?" he asked.
  "Duncan!" Xander called out, as he rounded the corner to catch up
with them.
  The man looked at Xander and Duncan, confused.  "Are you with him?"
he asked Xander quietly.
  "Uh, yeah," Xander agreed.
  Duncan caught the look between the two men and looked at Xander.
"Do you know him?"
  "Uh, yeah," Xander said again.  "Uh, Angel, this is Duncan; Duncan,
this is Angel."
  Duncan grinned.  "Pleased to meet you."  He stuck out his hand.
  Angel looked at him warily but shook his hand slowly.  "Likewise,"
he said softly, releasing his hand.  "So, what did you want from me?"
  Xander let out a breath. "Y'know, that's a really long story," he
said, gesturing.  "I have a feeling we should all probably go talk to
Giles to sort it out."
  "Is this about Buffy?" Angel asked worriedly.
  Duncan looked confused and shook his head.  "Not that I know of.
Should it be?"  He looked back at Xander.
  Xander rubbed his eyes for a second and looked at them. "I'll try to
explain on the way back to the library," he assured them, as they
began to walk.
[End of Part 7]



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail]
Subject: BUFFYFIC: "Synchronicity" (8a/11)
Date: 30 Jul 1997 11:33:00 -0400

Um, just wanted to know if anyone was reading this.  Any
comments?

Please see Introduction for warnings, etc.  No infringement
of any sort is intended with the following.  Send any comments
or requests to:  [e-mail].

                     Synchronicity, Part 8
                     By Katherine Gilbert

  "He just moved away?" Giles asked Willow, who had returned
to the library with Sydney.
  "Well, sort of," Willow explained.  "I mean, I think that's
what someone wanted it to look like, but there are some things
which don't add up."
  "Such as?" Oliver asked.
  "He missed the last week of school, for one thing," Sydney
explained.
  "It could have been more, actually," Willow threw in.  "It's
just that no one really noticed until then."
  "Sounds familiar," Giles thought to himself.
  "There were some builders in and out refurbishing the library
around then," Willow went on, "and the janitor complained to
Principal Flutie about having to let them in the room every
morning, because Mr. Crater hadn't unlocked it yet."
  "He could just have been late on those days--or decided not
to come in because of the builders' noise," Giles suggested,
playing devil's advocate.
  "Well, it's not just that," Sydney continued.  "We checked out
his bank records, too; every month, he made a deposit on the 30th
or 31st and then wrote all his checks for rent and utilities on
the 1st."
  "The pay day here is the end of the month," Giles nodded.
  "Yeah," Sydney said, "but last May, there was an extra deposit
and some checks written on the *15th*."
  "Could they have moved up the paydate for some reason near the
end of school?" Oliver asked.
  Giles shook his head.  "No, that wouldn't be normal procedure."
He thought for a second and looked at Oliver.  "Is it normal for
operatives in this . . . Committee to use small paychecks like the one
here to pay their bills?  Couldn't that last deposit have been from
some outside source of Crater's?"
  "No, that might draw the wrong sort of attention," Oliver responded.
"If an operative is working under an alias or creating a cover, like
Crater was here, they won't risk breaking from routine."
  "Crater also called up the utility companies on May 15th and asked
for his service to be disconnected on June 8," Sydney went on.
  "Could he have just been closing up shop?" Giles pondered.  "Could
he have finished his mission?"
  "No, the outside deposit breaks the pattern," Oliver shook his head.
"If things were at an end normally, he would have either waited until
the end of the school year to make his payments and move on--to avoid
attention, or--if he needed to get out quickly--he would have simply
disappeared without the explanations and closed things up later."  He
looked at Giles concentratedly.  "Somebody made those calls, but I
doubt it was him."
  Willow thought back.  "You know, I really don't remember seeing
Mr. Crater in the library *any* around the end of last school year."
She paused for a second.  "I guess he could have been hiding somewhere
here during all the repairs. . . It made returning books really hard,
though.  I remember this one day I couldn't find *anyone* here but
repairmen, and they just kind of shooed me out."  She looked at Giles.
"They were kind of creepy."
  Oliver and Sydney stared at her.
  "I'll be quiet now," she said meekly.
  "No," Oliver shook his head, "it's not that.  There's just something
we're overlooking."
  "Good, you're all here," Xander said, as he came in.  "Where's Buffy?"
  "She and Samantha haven't returned yet," Giles informed him.  "Where's
Duncan?"
  "With our mystery guest," Xander said, pointing back toward the doors.
"I just wanted to make sure Buffy wasn't here first."
  Willow looked at him.  "This is a first," she commented, "I mean, you
not wanting to see Buffy."
  "Just wait," Xander said, leaving again.
  Giles and Willow looked at each other briefly before watching the door
again.  A second later, Xander returned with Duncan and Angel.
  "Angel?" Giles questioned, staring at him.  "What are you doing here?"
  Angel smiled slightly. "My presence was requested," he said softly.
  Oliver looked at Duncan.  "Is this the man?" he asked.
  Duncan nodded.
  "You've never seen him before?" Xander asked Oliver.
  "No," Oliver explained, "Sam and Duncan were the ones who found the
information on Crater."
  Giles' eyes widened, as he pointed at Angel.  "*This* is the man you
saw with Crater in VR?"
  Duncan nodded again.
  "Okay," Willow said slowly, "what's going on?"
  Angel smiled at her.  "If you all want to sit down, I'll try to explain
what I know."
[End of Part 8a; Part 8b is coming!]



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail]
Subject: BUFFYFIC: "Synchronicity" (8b/11)
Date: 30 Jul 1997 11:34:45 -0400

Please see Introduction for warnings, etc.  No infringement
of any sort is intended with the following.  Send any
comments or requests to:  [e-mail].

                    Synchronicity, Part 8b
                     By Katherine Gilbert

  They all sat down around the library's main table, but Oliver asked the
group, before Angel could start explaining, "Just how exactly do you know
this man?"
  Willow, Giles, and Xander looked at each other, trying to think of a
way to begin explaining.
  "I'm a vampire," Angel helped them.
  Oliver looked astounded; he had never seen one without its demonic
face on.
  Sydney was frightened; she was sitting right next to him.  She
considered getting up and moving closer to Oliver.
  Angel caught her look.  "I don't bite, anymore," he assured her.
  "You're one of those . . . *monsters* from the graveyard?" Oliver
asked, incredulous.
  "Pretty much," Angel replied.
  "Well, excuse me if I've misunderstood your mission," Oliver said,
looking back at Giles, "but shouldn't you have killed him by now?"
  Angel smiled.
  "Angel's . . . different," Giles explained.
  "So, there are good vampires?" Sydney asked, still leaning away from
Angel.
  "Not really . . ." Giles trailed off.
  "Angel was cursed," Duncan supplied.  "I got the story on the way
over," he shrugged at Oliver, when the Englishman stared at him.
"Apparently, he got his soul restored to him."
  "That must be a nice trick," Oliver observed.
  "Not really," Angel shook his head, sadly.
  "So, you don't kill humans anymore?" Sydney asked.
  "No," Angel smiled and looked deeply at her.  Sydney relaxed a little.
  Oliver watched the two of them.  "If that's some sort of vampiric
hypnotism," he thought, "I'll kill him myself."
  "So, how did you meet him?" Sydney asked the others.  They looked
tongue-tied.
  Duncan, who was sitting on the other side of Sydney, leaned over
to her and whispered in her ear.
  "Buffy's in love with him?" she said aloud.  "Isn't that kind of a
conflict of interest?"  Then, when all of the Sunnydale residents stared
at the table, she seemed to suddenly realize that she had verbalized
this.  "Oh, sorry," she murmured.
  Oliver analyzed Angel; the affection Buffy had for him was obviously
mutual.  He smiled sadly.  "No wonder you didn't want Buffy here when
he came in," he said softly.
  Angel looked up at Oliver with eyes which held entire realms of pain.
Oliver gave him a half-smile; he knew how he felt.
  Giles took a breath.  "Alright, now that our, um, introductions
have been made, can we get back to the topic of Mr. Crater?"
  "How did you know him?" Oliver asked Angel.
  "I didn't, very well," Angel told him.  "He just found me to ask me
questions a couple of times."
  "That is really all we saw of him in VR," Duncan agreed, pointing
at Angel.
  Willow looked at him.  "What exactly did you see in there, anyway?"
  Giles looked at Duncan, as well.  "And whose mind, exactly, were
you pillaging through?"
  Duncan smiled at him.  "We--Sam and I--had gotten the number of
this Committee operative--someone who had served as a Keeper of some
of important people.  One of the things we saw, when we took him in,
was some images of Crater--here, in the library; talking to Angel; . . .
killing a few people.  He wasn't exactly everything he pretended to be."
  "I'm beginning to wonder if that's a requirement for a librarian's
job here," Giles muttered softly to himself.
  "So, why'd you choose to follow up on him?" Willow asked.  "I mean,
you must have seen a lot of people doing that sort of stuff by now."
  "We have," Duncan agreed, seeming a little haunted by his memories,
"but . . . well, Sam thought Crater was one of the guys who . . . who
had been with her in East Germany."  He looked down at the table.
  "Wait, so this is one of the people who kidnapped her?" Xander
asked.
  "No," Duncan said, still staring at the table, "one of the people
who held her in captivity."
  "Eeeew," Willow said softly, horrified and disgusted at having met
this man.
  Giles looked extremely angry.  His jaw and fists clenched, and he
began to breathe a bit more rapidly.  With tense movements, he took
his glasses off and rubbed his eyes.
  Angel shook his head.  "I always knew he was a bastard," he said
softly.
  Sydney stared at the table, trying not to think about the things
Sam had been put through in their time apart.
  Oliver looked at Angel.  "What exactly did he want from you?"
  Angel gave an ironic little smile.  "He wanted to meet the Master--
to make a deal with him."
  "Who?" Oliver asked.
  "Our local vampire king," Giles told him.  "The head demon, so to
speak."  He looked at Angel.  "Um, sorry," he shrugged.
  Angel smiled again.  "No offense taken."
  "What was the deal?" Oliver asked, horrified.
  "He--or the organization he worked for--," Angel began.
  "The Committee," Oliver nodded.
  "Right," Angel continued.  "They wanted the Master's help in creating
unstoppable assassins, in return for helping him escape from the prison
which holds him."
  "He's in jail?" Duncan questioned.
  "So to speak," Angel smiled.
  "The perfect, soulless killer," Oliver mumbled, partly in shock.
  "What did you do?" Willow asked.
  "Well, I didn't exactly give him the Master's address," Angel said.
  "Did you kill him?" Xander wondered.
  Angel looked at him.  "I haven't fed from a human for almost 100
years.  He was evil, but he wasn't going to change my mind about that."
  "Did he get to the Master, then?" Giles pressed.
  "I don't know," Angel replied.  "I tried to scare him off, but I'm
not sure I succeeded."
  His companions around the table exchanged looks, then fell back
against the back of their chairs, let out their breath, and stared
dumbfoundedly, pondering.
  After a second, Angel, who was far less distracted than the others,
turned his head toward the door.  "She's coming," he said quietly.
  Giles looked up at him, still recovering from this new information
about the Master.  "Who?"
  "Buffy," Angel breathed.
  The Sunnydale residents exchanged looks.
  "I-in my office," Giles pointed.
  Angel got up and ran to hide.
  "Hey, good, you're all here," Buffy said, as she and Sam entered.
  They all looked at her like they were hiding a guilty secret.
  "Okay, and you were doing what, while we were gone?" Buffy looked
at them.
  Giles tried to look more normal.  "Well, we've found out some fairly
amazing things about Crater."  He put his glasses back on.
  "Cool," Buffy nodded.
  "Did you find out anything at the Coroner's?" Oliver asked.
  "Not a thing," Sam shook her head disgustedly, taking the seat Angel
had just been in.  She noticed it was slightly warmer than an unoccupied
chair should have been and looked up, about to speak.  Duncan, Sydney,
and Oliver gave her significant looks.  Sam, a little confused, kept
her mouth shut and sat back in the chair.
  Buffy pulled a chair up to the table between Willow and Sam.  "You
wouldn't believe some of the causes of death we did see, though--
everything from your regular run-of-the-mill vampire bites and blood
drainings to being drawn and quartered."  She looked up at the group,
some of whom looked a little green.  "You weren't really looking for
details, were you?"
  "Not really," Willow shook her head.
  Buffy gave a look which said, "Sorry."
  "So, what now?" Xander asked.
  "Well, it's possible that this guy who talked to Crater, even if he
doesn't know more consciously, saw something else," Sydney suggested.
"Maybe we should go back to the motel and take him into VR."
  Duncan repressed a shudder.  "That's going to be an interesting
subconscious to walk through," he noted.
  Sydney exchanged a look with him and grimaced a little.  "Yeah."
  "So, do we all go?" Buffy asked.
  Giles thought about the person in his office and stood.  "Yes, let's,"
he agreed.  "I'll just go get my jacket and scarf."
  "It's a warm night, Giles," Buffy pointed out.  "You really aren't
going to need them."
  "It'll only take a second," he said, smiling.
  Buffy shook her head.  She had been feeling something--peculiar, since
she had come in.
  Giles took a full minute to retrieve his things.
  Buffy sighed.  "Giles, how long does it take to grab a scarf and
jacket?"
  Giles stuck his head out his office door.  "I'll just be a second,"
he said.
  "Sometimes," Buffy pondered, "I think you need keepers for all your
stuff."
  Giles came out, closing his office door slightly and turning off the
light, and gave her a hard stare.  "Let's go, shall we?"
  Buffy paused for a second, looking around.  "Y'know, I really have
been feeling like there's something weird here, since I came in."
  Giles looked at her, seeming concerned.  "Perhaps you're getting
a cold," he suggested.  "Here, take my scarf."  He wrapped it around
her throat.  "Come along," he smiled at her, as he pushed her gently
toward the library's doors.
  Willow and Xander exchanged a look and let out their breath, once
Buffy started moving.  "The joys of supernatural romance," Willow
said softly to him, as they left.
  Xander patted her back and smiled.
[End of Part 8]



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail]
Subject: BUFFYFIC: "Synchronicity" (9a/11)
Date: 30 Jul 1997 11:36:59 -0400

Please see Introduction for warnings, etc.  No infringement of any
sort is intended with the following.  Please send any comments or
requests to: [e-mail].

                      Synchronicity, Part 9a
                       By Katherine Gilbert

  "So, how exactly does this work?" Buffy asked Sydney, as she stood
with all of their companions, looking over the mini-computer and VR
gear in Sydney and Oliver's motel room.
  "It reads the electromagnetism from your brain and translates it
into images," Sydney informed her, as she prepared the system.
  "Cool," Willow enthused quietly, watching her.
  Giles turned his back to the rest of the group and seemed to be
scanning the cheap room with some distaste.  Subtly, though, he
whispered to Oliver, "Is this process going to work on a vampire?
I mean, he is, technically, dead."
  Oliver appeared to be stifling a yawn with his hand, but he
whispered in return, "I can't say.  It's not like we've spent the
past few years doing research on the brainwaves of the undead."
  Giles smiled slightly to himself and turned back around.
  Samantha, meanwhile, looked down at her sister and asked, "Syd,
are you sure you don't want me to be the one who goes in?  This guy's
mind could be--unusual."
  "How?" Buffy asked curiously.
  Sam looked up at her.  Duncan had taken Sam aside briefly before they
entered the motel to catch her up on the events with Angel, on the
details they had left out of their brief to Buffy on the informant
Duncan had found.  Sam, in the course of the afternoon, had grown to like
and respect Buffy, and she hated keeping the truth from her, but she
supposed it probably was for the best.  "He's a killer," she told her.
"Syd's had some bad experiences in VR with them before."
  "Oh," Buffy accepted.
  Syd smiled up at Sam.  "I'll be okay."  She finished her thought to
herself:  "And I don't want to put you through any more trauma if I can
prevent it."  Syd sighed.  "I'm about ready," she said aloud.  "What's
the phone number?"
  "Oh, I think I have that here," Giles said, looking over slightly at
Willow and Xander.
  "Oh, say, Buffy," Xander distracted her, while Giles slipped his phone
number at the library to Sydney.  "Y'know that chem. homework?  Do you
think you could explain it to me later?"
  Buffy stared at him.  "Why are you asking me?  Willow's the queen of
all things homework."
  "Just thought I'd give her a break for the day," Xander smiled.
  "Uh, huh, right," Buffy replied, looking at him as though he had just
started telling her tales of the mothership.
  "Here goes," Sydney said, lowering her glasses.  Then, Angel answered.

  After a glowing vortex opened, Sydney found herself in a nightclub
which was the best approximation of The Bronze she could form without
having seen it.
  "Are you here for me?" a voice asked from behind her.
  Sydney, in a white flowing dress, similar to the one she had found
herself in in VR earlier that morning, and wearing a gold cross on a
chain, spun around and found herself face-to-face with a vampiric
version of Angel.  She gasped and stepped backwards.  "Is this what
you really are?"
  Angel smiled slightly.  "For over 200 years.  Becoming the vampire
version of a vegetarian doesn't change that."
  Sydney saw the sadness in his eyes and sensed that, even in this form,
Angel wasn't a danger to her.  She reached out to touch his distorted
face.  "This is how you see yourself?"
  Angel moved away from her touch.  "Call it a self-image problem," he
smiled ironically.
  Sydney looked around the club.  It was filled to capacity, and beyond,
with people of all descriptions, in clothing which reflected hundreds
of countries for about a century, up to the 1900s or so.  Many of them
were in black and white, others in various stages of heightened, VR.5
color.  At first, she was confused, but, then, she remembered being
in Jackson Boothe's subconscious--and the party he had been having
there.  "They're your victims, aren't they?" she asked.
  "All several thousand," Angel agreed.
  Sydney looked at him.  "Do all assassins keep their victims in their
minds?"
  "No," Angel responded.  "Only those killers with consciences--or who
get a kick from remembering," he shrugged.
  "Why are some of them clearer than others?" Sydney asked, looking
around.  She had seen the differing color effect before, but she had
a feeling it was significant here.
  "150 years of ugly death," Angel replied.  "You don't remember them
all."
  Sydney noticed that he was staring at one of the clearest victims--
a beautiful, teenage girl in a gypsy-type outfit.
  "We should leave," Angel noted.  "We don't want to be here when their
anger builds."  He looked around the club and then headed for a back
door; Sydney followed.
  When they opened the door, they found themselves in a very green
countryside.  There were sheep and cattle in a few fields near a rocky
cliff and a group of thatched cottages.  In the distance, a large house
could be seen.
  "Damn," Angel murmured.
  Sydney looked around.  "Where are we?"
  "My past," Angel shook his head, looking haunted.  "We need to leave."
  "Why?" Sydney asked.
  "Because this isn't something I want to see again," he answered, looking
at her, "and, for your sake, you don't want to see it either."
  Before they could turn away, however, the door to one of the cottages
opened.  "Angelis!" an attractive young woman yelled to a young man
approaching her.  "We were so worried!  We thought something might have
happened."  Her relief and delight shone from her.
  "Who is that?" Sydney asked, as they watched Angel's life replay itself.
  Angel's fangs were apparent as he answered, steeped in self-loathing.
"My wife."
  Sydney looked at him, horrified.
  The scene playing itself out before them was gruesome and terrifying,
as the newly-vampiric Angelis took his first victim.  "We have to stop
this!" Sydney yelled, despite years of experience which told her it was
useless to try to change remembered images.  She tried to run toward the
woman, but Angel, still watching the scene, caught her wrist.
  "It all happened 240 years ago," he said, smiling disgustedly.  "You
can't exactly stop it now."
  "My wrist," Sydney said, in pain.
  "I'm sorry," Angel responded, looking at her.  He let it go but then
took it again gently to caress it.  "I'm just created to bring pain to
those around me."
  Sydney shook her head.  "That's not true."  She put her other hand
over one of his.  "You've helped out Buffy and her friends before."
  Angel let her wrist go and pulled away from her, looking at the ground.
"Buffy deserves better than me," he said softly.
  "But does she want anyone else?" Sydney asked.
  Angel looked back up at her.
  "Have you told her about that?" Sydney questioned, motioning toward
the scene they had been watching.
  Angel smiled slightly.  "Not in detail."
  "Why not?" Sydney continued.
  "Because the further she stays away from me, the better off she is,"
he argued.
  "I don't think either of you believes that," Sydney challenged him.
  Angel fixed her with a hard stare.  "Look at me.  I'm a creation of
the darkest forces.  I've done nothing but spread pain and misery for
over 200 years."  His fangs glowed in the VR.5 moonlight.  "The world
would be a better place with me gone."  He shook his head and then went
over to the nearby cliff.
  "No!" Sydney yelled, as Angel jumped.  She caught his arm, as he went,
and fell with him.  They both landed safely on their feet on a rocky
beachfront.  "I thought you couldn't kill a vampire like that," Sydney
said, her VR.5-enhanced green eyes glowing at him.
  "It was worth a try," Angel shrugged.
  "You remind me a bit of someone," Sydney noted.
  "Who?" Angel asked.
  "Another assassin with suicidal tendencies," Sydney smiled.  As too
often happened in this subconscious realm, the object of Sydney's
memories then appeared.
  "Hello, Sydney," Jackson Boothe said quietly, walking up to her in
his usual black suit.
  "Boothe," she breathed.
  "I know you," Angel said, looking at him.  "You lost the mustache,
though . . . updated your wardrobe, as well."
  "You know him?" Sydney asked, surprised.  "He was in Sunnydale, too?"
  "Not from Sunnydale," Angel shook his head.  He looked at her.  "Let
me show you something," he said, walking toward a cave.
  As they entered it, leaving Boothe behind, the scene changed again.
This time, Sydney found herself in a white, mid-nineteenth-century
dress--the kind one would wear on a night out.  She was still wearing
the gold cross, as well.  She and Angel were in a theatre.  Across from
them was a box draped with red, white, and blue bunting, with two couples
therein.
  Sydney shook her head.  "Boothe can't be here.  This must be a century
before he was even born."
  "Watch," Angel said.
  The play they were watching seemed to be a comedy.  As the audience
laughed particularly loudly at one point, however, a shot was heard.
The audience froze, as panic set in.
  "Isn't that him?" Angel asked, pointing toward the man who jumped
down from the decorated box onto the stage and yelled some words in
Latin Sydney didn't understand.  The man then smiled up at her and
pointed to the stage's backdrop, which had transformed into a giant
Committee symbol.
  Sydney grabbed the front of the theatre box she was in and looked
closely at the man on stage.  Her mouth fell open.
  "It's Booth," Angel smiled, as someone from the decorated box started
yelling, "He's killed the President!"
  "But . . ." Sydney tried to speak.
  Angel smiled.  "Duncan said the Committee ran in families."
  Sydney, shocked, accidentally touched the gold cross she was wearing
and propelled them both back to reality.
[End of Part 9a; Part 9b arriving shortly!]



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail]
Subject: BUFFYFIC: "Synchronicity" (9b/11)
Date: 30 Jul 1997 11:39:17 -0400

Arrgh!  They got separated on the digest again!  Sorry about that. :)
Please see Introduction for warnings, etc.  No infringement of any
sort is intended with the following.  Please send any comments or
requests to: [e-mail].

                      Synchronicity, Part 9b
                       By Katherine Gilbert

  "No!" Sydney cried, as she came out, pulling off her VR glasses.
  "That was fast," Buffy said.  It had only been a few seconds since
Sydney had put the glasses on.
  Oliver, Duncan, and Sam all rushed to Sydney.
  "Syd!  Are you okay?  Did he do . . . did anything go wrong?" Duncan
asked.
  "No . . . no," Sydney shook her head, still a little stunned.
  "What did you find out?" Oliver asked, looking at her with concern.
  "Not what I expected to," she said softly.  "He's having a little
trouble staying in the present," she clarified, looking up at them.
  "What did you see?" Sam pressed.
  "Nothing about Crater," Sydney shook her head, "but I did see something
about Boothe."
  Her three friends exchanged looks.  "Jackson Boothe?" Oliver asked.
"The man who killed Morgan?"
  "Um, excuse me," Willow said, "but could you footnote this for the
clueless?"
  The four Committee escapees took in their new friends' presence again.
  "Sorry," Oliver said.
  "Boothe killed a friend of mine on orders from the Committee," Sydney
explained.
  "Lovely," Buffy grimaced.
  "So, what happened to this guy?" Xander asked.
  Oliver looked down.  "I shot him."
  "Good," Buffy decided.
  Sydney and Oliver looked at each other.
  "Or . . . not," Willow noted.
  Oliver shook his head.  "It's a long story."
  "So, what did you find out about him?" Samantha asked.
  Sydney looked into the distance.  "That his family's had a lot of
experience at being assassins . . . and a lot of experience with the
Committee."  She refocused on them.  "I'll explain it later."
  "So, how did this guy you took into VR know this?" Willow asked.
  "He . . . his family has a . . . colorful history," Sydney replied.
"I think they've seen a lot."
  Giles nodded.  "I'm sure," he said to himself.
  "But you still didn't find anything about Crater?" Oliver returned to
their original goal.
  "No," Sydney shook her head, looking away.  "He kept getting pulled
into the past.  I think we need something to," she shrugged, looking back
at them, "anchor him here."
  From behind Buffy, Willow and Xander looked at their friend
uncomfortably.
  Giles looked horrified and came forward slightly, about to protest.
  "How about if we take in both you and Buffy?" Oliver asked Giles.
"Maybe between the two of you, you can show him enough of Sunnydale
to keep him locked in the present."
  Giles looked angry.  "How dangerous is this--this computer thing?"
  "So long as I take you in, you should be okay," Sydney assured him.
  Giles was still horrified.  His fear of computers was meeting head-on
with his fear for Buffy's safety and sanity.
  "It doesn't sound so bad," Buffy shrugged, a little nervous but
determined not to show it.  "I mean, they took us in once already this
morning."
  "Um, Buffy," Giles began, "as well as dancing through heaven-only-
knows-what in the subconscious of this informant, we would also be walking
through each other's minds.  We'd be privileged to every secret desire
and fear.  It's a rather unheard-of level of intimacy for a Watcher and
a Slayer."  ("Or anyone else," he finished silently.)
  "Giles," Buffy said, giving him a look.  "We're going to be sharing
computer space, not underwear."
  Giles looked a bit patronizing.
  "Besides," Buffy went on, "it's not like you haven't seen some of my
worst fears already.  Remember Billy?"
  "Vividly," Giles replied.
  "What?" Sam asked, confused.
  "Kid--coma--nightmares becoming reality--very Twilight Zone," Xander
informed her, cryptically.
  Willow rolled her eyes.  "It was really unpleasant," she confirmed.
  "Whatever you say," Sam replied, still clueless.
  "Buffy," Giles began.
  "Giles, we need to find out more about Crater's link to the Master,
if we can, right?" Buffy asked.
  "Well, yes," Giles agreed.
  "And you'll be there to watch over me, also right?" Buffy continued.
  "True," Giles nodded, unhappily, sensing he was losing.
  "So, let's get on with it," Buffy concluded.  "How do you plug us
in?" she asked Sydney.
  Sydney looked at her companions.  "Sam--why don't you take Buffy to
your room, and I'll call there."
  "Okay," her sister agreed.
  "I think there was a phone booth outside," Giles noted.
  "I'll bring you back the number and keep a watch on him," Oliver
told Sydney.
  "Will I need to be watched?" Giles asked, worriedly.
  "Probably not," Oliver assured him.  "It's only a failsafe."
  "I hate computers," Giles muttered.
  "What about us?" Willow asked.
  "Why don't you and Xander stay here with Duncan and me?" Sydney
smiled.
  Willow and Xander nodded and went to sit on the bed.
  When Buffy, Sam, Giles, and Oliver had left, Xander looked over at
Willow.  "Let's hope this works."
  Willow let out a big breath and nodded in response.
  A minute or so later, Sydney took the others in.

  After the vortex, Giles, Buffy, Angel, and Sydney were in a strange
version of the Sunnydale High library; much of it was in sepia tone,
and it had a rather film noir feel overall.  The three Sunnydale
residents were in oddly half-colored versions of their own clothes.
Buffy and Angel (who looked human again) seemed surprised to see
each other.
  "Angel," Buffy said, taking him in.  "What are you doing here?"
  Angel looked at her with incredible pain in his eyes.  Then, he
turned to Giles.  "I thought you said you were going to help protect
her from me," he said, slightly angrily.
  "I wanted to," Giles told him.  "This wasn't my idea."
  Angel looked back at Buffy, confused, but Buffy was obviously just
as bewildered.
  "It was mine," Sydney informed him.  She was dressed in a Committee-
like man's grey suit.
  "Why?" Angel asked, looking at her.
  "Because you need to stay focused on this place--on Crater," Sydney
explained.  "I thought seeing Buffy might help you stay in the here-and-
now."
  "*You're* the informant?" Buffy asked.
  "By accident," Angel shrugged, looking back at her.
  "This room looks different," Sydney noted.
  "Yes," Giles agreed.  "There's usually a wall there."  He motioned
with his head to one side of the library, where scaffolding covered
a partially-constructed wall.
  Buffy, finally, stopped looking, with pain and longing, at Angel
and turned to Giles.  "Why didn't you tell me about this--about him?"
she challenged Giles, angrily.  "Did you think I was just so fragile
I'd fall to pieces at the mention of his name?"  She shook her head.
"How many other big secrets are you keeping from me?"
  "Buffy, I . . .," Giles began.  "I just wanted to protect you."
  "I guess good little Slayers don't fall for vampires, huh?" Buffy
said, sarcastically.
  "Buffy, it wasn't him," Angel tried to interrupt.
  Buffy wasn't listening, though.  "Can't get the right results if
your Slayer goes soft on you, right?" Buffy threw at Giles.
  Giles didn't know how to answer.  He had never been very good at
talking about his feelings; in fact, he had been trained to avoid it.
Now, faced with the pain and confusion of a 16-year-old girl he had
come to respect and love deeply, he was silent in the face of her
verbal assault.
  Buffy, though, took his silence as agreement--and a sort of
betrayal.  She shook her head, turned around, and stormed out the door
of the library.
  When she did, however, she found herself in her old Hemery High
cheerleading uniform, standing in the middle of a parade float storage
area.  "Oh no," she muttered.
  "Buffy," Lothos smiled at her.
  Buffy was paralyzed.  All she could do was relive the events of that
night, watch as--caught in the spell of the vampire's eyes--she dropped
her stake, and Lothos killed Merrick when he tried to break the cycle,
giving his life for hers.  Too soon, she found herself cradling the dead
Merrick, crying.  She kissed the top of his head.  "No," she said quietly
and looked at his face.  When she did, however, her world fell apart
again.  "Giles," she whispered, as she saw that it was now his body she
was holding instead of her former Watcher's.  "Oh God, no."  She brushed
Giles' hair with her fingers and stared closely at the finely-wrought
features of his face.  "Not again.  I promised myself it wouldn't happen
again."  She was crying harder now, almost inconsolably, and her tears
fell on the Englishman's face.
  "Buffy," a soft, British man's voice said from behind her, as the
real Giles' VR.5 image put his hand on her shoulder.  "Buffy, it's
alright."
  Buffy looked up at him.  "Giles?" she asked, through the tears.
"You're alive?"
  Giles smiled tenderly at her.  "Yes," he said.
  Buffy realized that the man she had been holding had disappeared.
She looked back up at her Watcher.
  "It's this computer thing," Giles shrugged, motioning toward the
sky.
  "VR.5," Buffy nodded, as Giles helped her to her feet.  "It's
making the Hellmouth look like Mayberry."
  "I'm afraid so," Giles agreed, looking deeply at her.  "Buffy, why
didn't you ever tell me about Merrick?"
  "I figured you knew already," Buffy looked away.
  "I did, but . . .," Giles paused.  "I want to show you something
you missed, when Billy's nightmare realm took over.  It's a . . .
a worst fear of my own."  He led Buffy away from the storage yard.
  Sydney and Angel, who had watched the preceding silently, exchanged
looks and followed them.
  "Oh, not the graveyard again," Buffy moaned, as she saw where Giles
was leading her.  She had gone back to a VR.5 version of her normal
clothes.
  Giles, with a look of great pain, silently walked up to a new grave.
  Buffy smiled ironically.  "You're afraid I'll kill you too?" she
asked.
  "No," Giles said quietly.  "Look at the headstone."
  Buffy did and saw the inscription:
                 BUFFY SUMMERS
                   1980-1997
          Beloved Daughter and Friend
                 Rest in Peace
  Buffy looked at him.  "You were afraid I'd die?"
  "I was . . . I am still," Giles replied slowly, "afraid that I'll fail
to protect you--that you'll be killed because of me."
  Buffy smiled slightly.  "I'm not *that* fragile, Giles."
  Giles returned the smile.  "Neither am I," he assured her.
  Buffy thought for a moment.  "So, I mean that much to you?" she asked
more brightly.
  Giles looked down, still smiling.  "*Sometimes*," he replied before
looking up at her again.
  She smiled back at him and put her hand on his arm.  He placed his
other hand over it gently and patted it.
  "Can we leave this graveyard now?" Angel asked from behind them.  "I
can't say I like it here much."
  Giles and Buffy pulled away from each other, and Buffy turned to Angel.
  "And it was my idea to keep from seeing you," Angel told her.
  "I know--I understand," she nodded.  "Sorry," she shrugged at Giles.
  He nodded understandingly back at her.  "It's been a rather long year."
  Buffy looked back at Angel.
  Angel closed his eyes.  "Sydney, how do we get out of here?"
  "Buffy," Sydney answered him, "that cross you're wearing--it's the key;
touch it."
  "Helpful for all occassions," she shrugged, exchanging one last glance
with Angel before returning them all to their lives.

  A minute later, Buffy, Sam, Giles, and Oliver had rejoined the others
in Sydney and Oliver's motel room.
  "So, what just happened?" Buffy asked.
  Sydney swallowed.  "Um, nothing much," she lied, deciding that Buffy
and Giles were better left with impressions than complete memories.
  Giles looked pensive, as he was trying to process something he couldn't
quite remember.  "Did you learn anything about Crater?"
  Sydney tried to focus on something other than the details she had
learned about Giles and Buffy.  "I'm not sure," she said finally.  "I
think we need to go back to the library."
  "Why?  What's there?" Xander asked.
  Sydney shook her head.  "If we're lucky?  Nothing," she answered
cryptically.
  The others exchanged confused looks but prepared to leave.
[End of Part 9]



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Anya <[e-mail]>
Subject: BUFFYFIC: Off topic: Fanfic Archive
Date: 31 Jul 1997 19:20:24 -0400

Hi to everyone!

I  apologize for this off-topic post, but wished to let all know before
I'm overwhemled with emails.  I'd answer each one of you, but find this
to be a faster medium!

The Slayer's Fanfic Archive is temporarily DOWN!  The T-1 connection has
been..um..lost I guess is the best word, and we are trying to rectify
the situation.

If the problem cannot be quickly fixed, as in the next day or so, I will
establish a temporary site.  Until then, cross your fingers, and wish
Alex the best of luck in fixing the problem!

And..just so I'm Buffy related:  My area didn't get a Buffy covered T.V.
guide.  Lucky us, we got Jerry Springer.  *Grrr*  And was there any
Buffy'ness inside that cover..oh no!  We couldn't have that.   I think
I'll write TV Guide a pleading letter.

Cheers!
Anya
[e-mail]



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Anya <[e-mail]>
Subject: BUFFYFIC: Off topic: Fanfic Archive
Date: 31 Jul 1997 19:34:30 -0400

Hi to everyone!

I  apologize for this off-topic post, but wished to let all know before
I'm overwhemled with emails.  I'd answer each one of you, but find this
to be a faster medium!

I also apologize to our list mommies, in my delusional state, I
accidentally sent a copy of this message to the Fanfic list!  I didn't
MEAN to do that..I  hit the wrong button!  I'm sorry!


The Slayer's Fanfic Archive is temporarily DOWN!  The T-1 connection has
been..um..lost I guess is the best word, and we are trying to rectify
the situation.

If the problem cannot be quickly fixed, as in the next day or so, I will
establish a temporary site.  Until then, cross your fingers, and wish
Alex the best of luck in fixing the problem!

And..just so I'm Buffy related:  My area didn't get a Buffy covered T.V.
guide.  Lucky us, we got Jerry Springer.  *Grrr*  And was there any
Buffy'ness inside that cover..oh no!  We couldn't have that.   I think
I'll write TV Guide a pleading letter.

Cheers!
Anya
[e-mail]