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buffyfic Digest        Wednesday, July 30 1997        Volume 01 : Number 006



In this issue:

    BUFFYFIC: "Synchronicity" (6b/11)
    BUFFYFIC: "Synchronicity" (7/11)
    BUFFYFIC: "Synchronicity" (8a/11)
    BUFFYFIC: "Synchronicity" (8b/11)
    BUFFYFIC: "Synchronicity" (9a/11)

See the end of the digest for information on subscribing to the buffyfic
or buffyfic-digest mailing lists and on how to retrieve back issues.

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

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

<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]

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

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

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]

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

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

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!]

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

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

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]

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

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

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!]

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

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