DISCLAIMER: All things Buffy are the creation and property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy Productions, and so forth. All things non-Buffy are the creation and property of many other individuals and corporate entities.

This particular story is the creation of Robert A. Black (that's me). Feel free to drop me a line and let me know what you think of my work. Good or bad, I'd like to hear it.

TIME CONTEXT: This story takes place between the Buffy episodes, "Nightmares" and "Invisible Girl."

Confused? Refer to the Readers' Guide at the end of the chapter for hints and explanations.

Rupert Giles may have been a Watcher, but at the moment, he wanted to do more than just watch.

The visitors to his vastly enlarged library had moved their equipment to the balcony overlooking the mysterious energy vortex they had discovered. Giles could watch them as they worked. Or, if he preferred, he could look over the balcony and watch the swirling lights and patterns in the vortex itself. But those two options were the only ones he had. He felt powerless to do anything else.

If only Zathras or one of the others had found those books, Giles thought to himself.

A crackle and a puff of smoke got Giles's attention. He looked over just in time to see sparks fly from the top of K9, the mechanical dog the Fourth Doctor had brought along. The Seventh Doctor glared at his counterpart in irritation.

"I thought you were reversing the polarity of the neutron flow," said the Seventh Doctor.

"That was before Professor Arturo calculated the Ralph-Katine Oscillation Coefficient," said the Fourth Doctor. "Do try to keep up, man. I'd hate to think I was slowing down in my old age."

"Master," chirped K9, "maximum baud rates have been exceeded on three input ports. Remodulation is required."

"Again?" said Wade Welles, who sat at a computer terminal that had been connected to various points on K9's frame.

"Let me see that," said Sydney Bloom, looking over Wade's shoulder. "What sort of flow control settings did you use?"

"I think I know how to do those," Wade shot back, frustration making her voice a bit edgier than perhaps it should have been.

"Hey, just trying to help," said Sydney. "I have a way of making computers do what they're not supposed to do."

At that point, Quinn, Arturo and the holographic Doctor arrived with more equipment. The discussion turned to more technical matters, so Giles thought it best to excuse himself and watch elsewhere.

He went over to the balcony, where Kes and Duncan were looking down at the vortex. It continued to swirl in a blaze of light and color.

"Pretty cool, isn't it?" said Duncan.

"I suppose you could say so," Giles replied, "although I wouldn't."

"It bothers you, doesn't it?" said Kes.

"What makes you say that?" asked Giles.

"Because it bothers me," Kes replied. "Everyone assumes the vortex leads to whoever brought us all here, but I'm not so sure." She stared deeply into the center of the vortex, as if it had a mind she could read. "It's definitely being controlled by the same force that brought us here, but its nature is too primitive. You could almost call it savage."

"Well, maybe the vortex is simply the power source that our mysterious abductor is using," Giles suggested.

"Maybe," said Kes. "But it's something else, too. I don't know what, yet."

Giles thought the problem through, trying to come up with another suggestion. Before he could reach one, Zathras emerged from the shelves, carrying a stack of books.

"Zathras promises to find books," the alien said. "Much difficulties in looking for them, but Zathras finds!"

"Zathras, that's wonderful," said Giles. He took the books eagerly and set them on the floor. The volume he wanted most was already on top of the stack, so he picked it up and began to thumb through it rapidly.

Zathras, meanwhile, had stepped over to the balcony railing and was looking down at the vortex. "Not good," he muttered under his breath. "Much power needed to contain that kind of vortex. Very dangerous. If power fails, everyone dies."

"You've seen a vortex like that before?" Kes asked.

"Zathras trained in energy configuration control," Zathras replied. "Is necessary to run Great Machine. Many times, Zathras notices when power systems become unstable. Zathras warns, but no one listens to poor Zathras..."

"My God!" gasped Giles. He was becoming absorbed in his book and had started to tune out what Zathras was saying.

"What is it?" asked Duncan.

"The vortex," Giles replied. "I think I know what it is."

***

Willow traveled down the jump tube for a long time, through various twists and turns. Then the dark smooth tunnel abruptly dumped her out into a corridor. She landed on the floor with enough speed to send her into the opposite wall, which she hit with a thud.

A pair of similar thuds told Willow that at least some of her companions had reached the corridor with her. She looked around to see Leela and Gabrielle picking themselves up off the floor. Mulder, Marcus and Bashir were nowhere to be seen. Neither were the jump tubes that had brought them to this place.

Gabrielle leaned on her staff as she stood up, then looked around wearily. "And I thought I really got around back at home," she said. "Where are we this time?"

"I don't know," said Willow. "It looks different from the last place."

"This is another spaceship," said Leela. "You can feel the engines through the floor and the walls."

"How do you know that?" asked Gabrielle.

"The Doctor has taken me to many spaceship corridors," Leela replied. "Most are darker than this one, but I still recognize the way they feel."

"We've got to figure out where the others went," urged Willow. "They could be in trouble."

"I hope they haven't fallen prey to those bulb-headed demons," said Leela. "If they've hurt any of our party, I shall personally cut out their hearts - if they have them."

"Let's not talk about cutting out hearts until after we find everyone," Willow suggested.

Gabrielle was looking down the corridor, but quickly turned back to Willow and Leela. "Someone's coming!" she whispered.

Willow looked, and sure enough, a lone figure was walking toward them. He looked ordinary enough. By all appearances, he was a normal man in his thirties. Only one thing about him gave Willow any cause for alarm. His outfit.

"Look!" Gabrielle exclaimed as the man drew closer. "He's wearing the same kind of clothing as those vampires we fought!"

It was true. The man's shirt was gold instead of red, but it was made from the same velour material and had the same emblem as the shirts worn by five of the vampires at the Bronze. He wore the same kind of black pants and black boots as well.

"Just because he's dressed like them doesn't mean he's one, too," Willow pointed out. "Maybe this is where the vampires came from before they died."

Leela stood by Willow's side, drawing her knife and preparing to use it. "Stand firm, sister," she said. "We will fight together, and if necessary, we will fall together."

"You've never done much motivational speaking, have you?" Willow quipped.

"He's seen us," said Gabrielle. "Get ready."

Sure enough, the man was now looking directly at them as he approached. It may have been her imagination, but Willow could swear the man was walking with an extra swagger in his step, as if he thought his presence alone would be enough to charm them. Definitely a sign of a vampirish nature.

Willow braced herself for whatever fate had in store next.

***

"Did anybody get the number of that air raid siren?"

Fox Mulder's head was slowly clearing as he got up from the floor. The last thing he remembered clearly was fighting those brightly-colored spandex-clad "Rangers." Then there had been a confusing mix of light, sound and motion that had left him here, in an unfamiliar corridor with only Bashir and Marcus near him.

"Whatever all that was," said Marcus, "it obviously allowed someone to get us to safety. The question now is, where exactly did they get us to?"

"My God," said Bashir, looking around. "I know where we are. This is the Enterprise."

"The Enterprise?" Mulder repeated. "It doesn't look like an aircraft carrier to me. Looks more like some kind of high-tech hotel."

"It's the starship Enterprise," Bashir clarified. "Enterprise-D from the looks of it. We're fairly close to my time period - but I don't remember ever hearing about the Enterprise-D encountering a temporal anomaly of this magnitude."

"I don't remember hearing anything about aliens and people from the future visiting the twentieth century," said Marcus. "But we've seen that happen tonight, too."

"We should get to the Bridge and see what's going on," Bashir suggested. "Maybe they can help us find a way to get home."

"We have another problem," said Mulder. "There used to be six of us. What happened to Willow, Leela and Gabrielle?"

"If they're somewhere else on the ship," Bashir replied, "we can find them using the internal sensors."

"And if they're not?" asked Marcus.

"Then our best option is to see if the Enterprise crew can help us find them. Either way, we need to get to the Bridge."

"It's your universe - apparently," said Mulder. "Lead the way. Let's just hope we can find the others before they get into trouble."

***

"Stay right there. Keep your hands up and don't move."

Willow stood with her back to the wall, doing as she was told. The man who was dressed exactly like the vampires from the Bronze - right down to the red color of his shirt - still pointed the gun-shaped object unwaveringly at her. The man had already used it to shoot balls of light at Leela and Gabrielle, and the two women were now lying on the floor, motionless. Willow did not want to join them.

"I... I'm not moving," she stammered. "Do you see me moving?"

Their fight with the man in the gold shirt had barely begun when Willow realized it was a mistake. For one thing, a vampire wouldn't have been knocked down by Gabrielle's staff so easily. Especially since Willow had been the one to swing it.

The brief struggle flashed before her eyes once again. The man had approached, obviously surprised to see them yet still flashing a confident smile. Willow had seen that look before - on Thomas, the first vampire she had ever met. He had caught her attention with that same expression, the one that suggested he could convince her to do anything he wanted. If Buffy hadn't intervened, Thomas would have succeeded, at the cost of Willow's life.

"I don't mean to be inhospitable," the man said as he reached them, "especially to such lovely ladies, but I don't remember you coming aboard. What are you doing on my ship?"

Suddenly all of the fear, stress and tension Willow had experienced through the night boiled to the surface. Before anyone else could act, she snatched the staff from Gabrielle's hands and clubbed the man in the stomach with it. The man reeled back, the wind knocked out of him. That was when Willow began to suspect he wasn't a vampire after all. When his face didn't change and he didn't sprout fangs, Willow was positive. By that time, though, things were already out of control.

The man staggered to a wall panel and called for help, identifying himself as the ship's Captain. Leela pounced on him before he could finish. They struggled fiercely, as the Captain tried to keep Leela's knife away from him. They were still struggling when the man in red showed up.

Gabrielle grabbed her staff back from Willow and prepared to fight off the man in red, but the man was ready for her. There was a bright flash of light from the man's gun, and Gabrielle fell to the floor. Leela saw everything and got up to attack the man, but a second flash of light knocked her to the floor as well.

That was when Willow decided standing motionless against the wall was a good idea.

"That will be all, Ensign Garrovick," said a new voice. Willow looked just in time to see the arrival of another man who made her re-rethink her suspicion that there were vampires nearby. The man looked mostly human, but his eyebrows swept upward at a severe angle, and his ears had sharp points at the tips. He was dressed like Garrovick and the Captain, but with a blue shirt instead of a gold or red one. Like Garrovick, he held one of those mysterious guns in his hand.

The Captain had now picked himself up off the floor and was walking to Willow's side. The pointy-eared man met him there. "I trust you are undamaged, Captain," the pointy-eared man said.

"For the most part, Mister Spock," said the Captain, "despite the efforts of our young friend and her accomplices."

Willow looked away, suddenly embarrassed by her rash act.

"Now then," the Captain continued, looking straight at Willow and speaking much more sternly than before, "let's go back to where we started. Who are you, and what are you doing on my ship?"

Willow's mind raced as she tried to come up with an answer. How could she tell someone from who knows what point in her future that she had hit him because she thought he was a vampire? For that matter, she still didn't know for certain that he wasn't a vampire, or something equally mean-spirited. After all, those guns they carried had cut down her two companions in an instant. For all Willow knew, the two women were dead - or worse.

Fortunately, at that moment Gabrielle began to stir slightly. The Captain waved Garrovick over to tend to her, then looked back just in time to see the relief on Willow's face. Her expression seemed to make it clear that she didn't understand what was going on.

"Your friends will be all right," he assured her. Slipping back into his more charming mode - although not so much that it bothered Willow - he added, "Why don't we start over? My name's Jim Kirk. What's yours?"

"Willow. Willow Rosenberg." Willow hoped that Kirk wouldn't respond in the same way that Thelma had. Fortunately, he didn't.

"Willow, you're on board the starship Enterprise," Kirk continued. "Do you have any idea how you got here?"

"I can tell you," Willow replied, "but I'm not sure you'll believe me. Have you ever heard of a multiversal interface?"

Kirk said nothing, clearly surprised by Willow's answer. He looked over at Spock, but all Spock did was raise one of his eyebrows. "Apparently, we haven't," Kirk said at last, "but it sounds like something you should tell us about."

"Is it ever," Willow agreed.

***

"Okay, guys," said Buffy, "stay together. We're getting close."

"Buff, I don't think we could spread out much in this tunnel," Xander replied. "Even if we wanted to."

Xander had a point. The tunnel was becoming increasingly cramped as they followed it. They had one more person in the group, too, since Ace had insisted on bringing Adric along even after they had convinced the other children in the cornfield to stay behind. All in all, everything was combining to create a very uncomfortable situation.

Still, Buffy pressed on. They were almost on top of something big. She could almost recognize the tunnel walls from her nightmares. She could almost feel the vampires waiting for her around the corner.

They traveled several more yards, and the cramped tunnel abruptly opened up into a wide cavern. Candles burned in several areas of the cavern, revealing a crumbling architecture above them.

And yet, something was wrong. The place didn't feel quite right, and Buffy didn't know why.

"This is more like it," said Ace as she stepped into the cavern. "The vampires must be around here somewhere."

"Don't be too sure," said Buffy, still looking around. "There's something strange going on."

"What are you talking about?" said Xander. "This place has everything an upstanding member of the undead could want. Nice underground location, plenty of crumbly, dripping walls, gloomy atmosphere. It's a vampire's dream."

"That's the problem," Buffy replied. "It may be a vampire's dream, but it's not my dream. I'm the Slayer. I've dreamed about where the Master is trapped. This isn't it."

"Dreams can be funny things," said Kimberly. "Maybe you're just remembering them wrong."

"Not these dreams," Buffy insisted. "Besides, there are things here that don't make any sense." She pointed to a swirling circular pattern that adorned several places along the walls. "Take that mark there," Buffy continued. "I've never seen anything like it."

"I have," said Ace. "Buffy's right. There is something weird going on. That's the Seal of Rassilon. I've seen it lots of times inside the Doctor's TARDIS."

"What's it doing here?" Xander wondered.

"It is there because I put it there," said a deep and menacing voice. "It reminds me of things I've left behind. Old scores that still need to be settled."

The voice belonged to a short man dressed entirely in black. He entered the cavern from the side opposite to where Buffy and her companions were standing. His hair and his eyes were as black as his clothes, and he sported a goatee and mustache that looked almost too evil to be taken seriously.

"So, like, are you supposed to be our charming host?" Buffy asked the man.

"I am much more than that," said the man. He flashed an evil smile, revealing a set of vampire-sized canine teeth.

"I am the Master," he said, "and you will obey me."