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.

"It's the Hellmouth."

The group gathered at the edge of the balcony looked at Giles as if he had just told them the world was walrus-shaped. He held up the book that contained the information he'd been looking for. "Look, it's all right here," he told them. "The Hellmouth is a center of mystical convergence, a gateway between our world and the world of the demons. We should have guessed it would have some things in common with the Einstein-Rosen-Podowski Bridge between parallel worlds."

"So what you're saying," said Wade, "is that if we jump into that thing, we'll go to some kind of demon world that's on the other side."

"I believe so, yes," Giles answered.

"But I thought you said the Hellmouth was blocked by an ancient vampire," said Kes. "What's happened to him?"

"And if he's gone," said Arturo, "what's keeping the demons from coming through to our side of the portal?"

"Perhaps the same entity is responsible for both," The holographic Doctor suggested. "If someone wanted to control the Hellmouth, they'd naturally want to get the vampire out of the way first."

"But use the Hellmouth for what?" Quinn asked. "I doubt they're planning to set up a tourist business on the other side."

"Well, for starters," said the Fourth Doctor, looking up from his work, "it would be a rather original thing to bring up at parties."

Giles frowned at him. "I think the answer's a little more involved than that," he said.

"You never know," the Fourth Doctor replied. "A sense of a accomplishment can do wonders for a person's self-esteem, which in turn gives that person a tremendous source of personal power..." His sentence trailed off as a thought struck him. "Of course! That's it!"

"What?" said Duncan. "You've figured out how to break into the pop psychology market?"

"The Hellmouth," the Fourth Doctor replied. "Capping it off creates an enormous energy source. It's kind of like damming a river. Whoever controls the portal's energy can use it for all sorts of purposes."

"But that's impossible," said Quinn. "The amount of energy you need to cap off the portal is almost as big as what you'd get out of doing it. The total net gain isn't worth the effort."

"Maybe using your technology," said the Seventh Doctor. "But there are other ways that are much more efficient."

"And better still," the Fourth Doctor added, "those other ways can be tracked. If you know how, of course."

He promptly turned to his small robot. "K9," he told it, "get your nose warmed up. We need you to do some sniffing."

"Request illogical, Master," K9 replied. "My sensors have been properly calibrated to function accurately regardless of ambient temperature."

"K9," said the Fourth Doctor, "sometimes you really know how to take the fun out of things."

***

The dark-haired man in black stared at Buffy with a cold and cruel look. Buffy stared straight back at him.

"You can't be the Master," she told him. "I know what the Master looks like. You aren't him."

"If you're referring to that dough-faced, bald-headed amateur," said the man, "I've placed him in an trans-dimensional hyper-envelope for the time being."

"Now why'd you go and do something like that?" asked Buffy.

"If it concerns you," the Master replied, "I can guarantee that he'll leave the hyper-envelope completely unharmed - assuming I ever decide to let him out."

"Oh, I don't mind," said Buffy, "since the Master wanted to destroy the world and all - but why go to so much trouble?"

"The Master - this Master, I mean - is a Time Lord," said Ace. "Just like the Doctor."

"You mean there are more of him running around, just like the Doctor?" asked Xander.

The Master laughed. "Unlike that bumbling fool, I make it a point never to cross paths with my former selves," he said.

"Why?" said Buffy. "Afraid one of them might bump you off?"

"I'm too concerned with my future to waste time on nostalgia for the past."

"The Master ran out of regenerations a long time ago," Ace explained. "Since then, he's been trying to find other ways to stay alive. The last time I saw him..." She hesitated for a moment, as if the memory was painful to her. "He'd gotten himself stuck on the planet of the Cheetah People."

"They actually have a place called that?" Xander asked in disbelief.

"Not any more," Ace replied with more than a hint of sadness.

"It hardly matters," said the Master. "Your very own Sunnydale, California, has given me what no other place could. A means to extend my life indefinitely!"

"By becoming a vampire," Buffy finished for him.

"I would never stop at something that simple," the Master corrected her. "With the power of the Hellmouth at my disposal, combined with my own abilities as a Time Lord, I can reach across the stars and take whatever I want. I can raise up a vampire army from a billion worlds throughout the cosmos. The entire universe can be mine!"

"And I thought the other Master had delusions of grandeur," Buffy remarked.

"You honestly believe that anyone can stop me?"

"Well, I don't know how things are on your planet," Buffy said, "but around here, any vampire with an ego problem has to spend some quality time with me." She drew out the meanest-looking stake she was carrying and waved it at the Time Lord. "I'm the Slayer," she said as menacingly as she could.

The Master laughed again - a long, low and chilling laugh. Buffy tried not to let anyone see how much he was wigging her out. As if on cue, more vampires began filing into the chamber through the same door the Master had used. Seska, Morden and Tasha Yar were joined by three other vampires. The newcomers were all dressed identically to the five red-shirted vampires from the Bronze, except that their shirts were gold.

"Before we have our own personal encounter," the Master said, "I believe I'll have you spend some more time with my assistants. You already know three of them, of course." Indicating the gold-shirted vampires, he added, "Allow me to introduce Lieutenants Lang, Latimer and Galloway. And there's one more person I'm sure you'll be very interested to see."

Buffy looked puzzled for a moment, wondering what he meant. Then she saw another figure enter the chamber and she understood.

"You can't imagine how disappointed I was to find out you're the Slayer," said Principal Bob Flutie. "You were one of my students the whole time, and you couldn't save me from a pack of hyena-possessed teenagers. I'd say that calls for some disciplinary action."

The Master smiled as he watched Buffy recoil in horror. "Once I found out who was opposing me," he explained, "I went back into your own past to find a suitable ally."

"You could have done a lot better than him," Buffy shot back. "What's he going to do, give me detention?"

"He will keep you occupied," the Master replied. "That is all I need."

Buffy's companions stepped forward, smoothly arranging themselves into a defensive position and preparing for the vampires to attack. Buffy looked at the Master confidently. "They still won't be enough," she declared.

"Perhaps you're right," the Master admitted. "Which is why I saved one extra surprise for just such an occasion."

Now it was the Master's turn to give Buffy a confident look. At the same time, Buffy saw Ace suddenly look alarmed.

"Buffy," said Ace, "I just remembered something very important."

"And that would be?" asked Buffy.

"Well," Ace continued, "it's something the Doctor once told me about Adric. He's dead."

Now it was Buffy's turn to be alarmed. She tried her best not to show it, though. "Well," she said, "maybe he was still alive when he was brought here to Sunnydale."

"I don't think so."

Ace stepped aside, revealing Adric standing next to her. His face had already changed to reveal his demonic nature. With inhuman speed - or non-Alzarian speed, as the case may be - he lashed out and struck Harry Kim with a series of blows. Caught off guard, Harry took the full force of the impacts and fell unconscious on the spot.

This was definitely not the way Buffy liked her battles to start.

***

"...and so hitting you really looked like the right thing to do at the time. You can understand that, can't you?"

Willow looked at the three faces gathered around the table in the starship's Briefing Room. All of them, Kirk, Spock and a doctor named McCoy, were staring back unsympathetically. Willow began to understand how Buffy felt when she had to sit in Principal Snyder's office.

Kirk turned to his two colleagues. "Opinions, gentlemen?" he asked.

"I'm a Doctor, Jim, not a guidance counselor," said McCoy. "Her story sounds pretty fantastic, but I think she believes it. Besides, who would make something like that up?"

"There is also the fact," added Spock, "that Miss Rosenberg knew the names of our dead security officers."

"Which she easily could have obtained by searching the ship's log," Kirk countered.

"Except I didn't do that," Willow insisted. "I saw those guys. A couple of them tried to kill me."

"Miss Rosenberg," said Kirk, "you must understand that the time-space phenomenon you've described is far more complex than anything Starfleet has ever encountered. It's only natural that we'd try to look for a simpler explanation."

"Like accusing me of lying?" said Willow.

"Not lying, necessarily," said Kirk. "But there's the possibility that you've imagined some of your story, or that your memories have been altered somehow."

"I know what I've been through," Willow insisted. "I know that we don't have starships where I come from, or guys with pointy ears. And I know that no matter what you say, you still can't find another way to explain how I got on your ship in the first place."

Kirk considered her argument for a moment. "All right," he said, "let's start with how you got here." He turned to the monitor screen that was attached to the table and pressed a button near it. "Computer," he ordered, "scan the female human sitting in front of me, and report the time and location of her first appearance on the ship's internal sensors."

"The requested procedure will require approximately four minutes, thirty-seven seconds to complete," the computer said in a seductive female voice. After a momentary pause, it added, "- dear."

Kirk rolled his eyes at the machine. "Begin processing," he ordered with a weary sigh.

The computer whirred and clicked into operation. Willow found herself grinning. "You know, there are a lot of guys in my computer class who would kill for that voice synthesizer," she said. "They, uh, don't go on very many dates."

"Mister Spock, I thought we had already taken care of this little... problem," said Kirk.

"Evidently, the personality routine that was installed at Cygnet Twelve is more entrenched than we originally thought," Spock replied.

"I could take a look at it if you want," Willow volunteered. She was still looking for a way to get on the Captain's good side so he would help her get home instead of remembering that she hit him.

Kirk simply gave her a patronizing smile. "If you're really from the twentieth century, as you claim," he said, "I strongly doubt you would understand our computer technology."

"You may have a different operating system," Willow replied, "but a computer's the same no matter what language it uses. The logic doesn't change. The machine just does what you tell it to do."

"Fascinating," said Spock. "A most enlightened attitude."

Willow blushed, despite her best efforts not to.

"We'll discuss your computer skills later," Kirk insisted. "Right now, I want to find out..."

He was interrupted by a voice on the intercom. "Bridge to Keptin Kirk!" the voice said in a thick Russian accent.

Kirk stabbed at a button on the console. The monitor screen lit up and displayed the image of a young man with an unruly mop of brown hair on the top of his head. "Kirk here, Mister Chekov," Kirk said. "What's going on?"

"Sir," Chekov reported, "sensors are picking up a number of wessels approaching us."

"Can you identify them?" Kirk asked.

"No, sir," said Chekov. "Only one of them is transmitting a Starfleet identification signal. It's the starship..." He looked down at his instruments for a second, then looked up in alarm. "Keptin, it's impossible! The other ship is identifying itself as the Enterprise!"

"Switch me to the forward viewscreen," Kirk ordered. "Let me see it."

On the monitor, Willow could see Chekov punching buttons on his console. The picture obediently shifted to a view of deep space. Spaceships of various shapes and sizes filled the frame.

Spock and McCoy moved alongside Kirk and looked at the screen as well. "Dear God!" said McCoy. "Where did they all come from?"

"Um, excuse me," said Willow, trying to get the men's attention again. "Would anyone be interested in hearing my story one more time?"

End of Chapter 12

Back to the story