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.

Cheer up, Slayer, Buffy told herself. For the first time in your life, you've got an entire strike force behind you. What could go wrong?

She looked around at the group that had volunteered to come along on her trip to the Bronze. Xander and Willow were there, of course. Their loyalty was beyond question, a fact that made Buffy anxious at times. The last thing she ever wanted was for their friendship to be rewarded with pain and suffering - or worse - at the hands of the undead.

Fortunately, her friends seemed to have picked up some reliable allies. Leela stuck close to Willow's side, her knife already drawn, while Marcus Cole walked along next to Xander. Both the savage and the "Ranger" (as Marcus called himself) had obviously faced danger before. Buffy hoped that having the two of them at her friends' backs would allow her to concentrate on other matters if things got too intense.

The rest of the group didn't inspire Buffy's confidence nearly as much. Bashir and Garak both seemed capable of looking after themselves, but their tuxedos made them look like a pair of mismatched penguins. Ace also seemed able to take care of herself, but Buffy couldn't help wondering if the girl was a little too eager for action. The large wooden object sticking out of Ace's rucksack - Ace called it a "cricket bat," although Buffy thought it was much too large to use on crickets - made her intentions perfectly clear. If Ace decided to go off and play Danger Girl, she could get them all into trouble.

And then there was Kes, bringing up the rear. Buffy didn't know what to make of her. Between her elfin appearance and her ridiculous pink striped overalls, she looked to be one of the most non-threatening creatures on the planet - whatever planet it was that she came from. Then again, Buffy reminded herself, looks could be deceiving. After all, more than one vampire had met its end by not recognizing the Slayer for what she was.

The group approached the Bronze without incident, and the club itself looked peaceful enough when they arrived. Even the Bouncer at the door looked bored.

"Maybe the vampires called it an early night," Willow suggested.

Buffy's instincts told her not to think they were that lucky. Too many strange things had already happened. "Let's split up and look around," she suggested.

The group divided and began to check the area around the club. Things still seemed quiet as Buffy led Bashir, Garak and Ace down the side of the building where Marcus said he had seen the vampires before. She thought she saw a figure lying on the ground ahead. Perhaps the vampires were on the hunt, and this was one of their victims. If she could just get closer...

THWACK!!!

The sound came from behind her. Buffy turned just in time to see Bashir take a second blow from an unidentified assailant. She hurried over to help - then stopped short when she saw they were not being attacked by a vampire, but by a young woman wielding a quarterstaff. The woman's clothes - a rust-brown skirt and a short green top - looked crudely made, as if they had come from a more primitive era. The woman wasn't much larger or much older than Buffy herself, and Buffy could tell from the look in her eyes that she was terrified.

Ace drew the cricket bat out of her bag and used it to face off against the woman. "Come on, then!" she shouted. "I'm not afraid of that overgrown toothpick you've got."

"Hold it!" cried Buffy, stepping into the fray. The woman, becoming more frightened by the second, brought her staff around again, but Buffy caught it in mid-swing. "It's all right," she said, as much for Ace's benefit as for the woman's. "We don't want to hurt you."

Everything was tense for a moment. Then, just as Buffy began to think things would turn out all right, a new voice rang out from the darkness.

"Don't worry, Gabrielle! I'll save you!"

Buffy looked up just in time to see a man running toward them. He was dressed in leather armor, complete with an absurd looking hat. Buffy would have burst out laughing if the man hadn't been waving a sword in the air as he charged.

Any threat of a fight breaking out was short-lived, though. Garak turned to face the man as he ran in. The man took one look at the Cardassian's face and jumped back, screaming in terror. Instead of rescuing the woman - Gabrielle, presumably - he ran around behind her and tried to hide there.

More shouts caught Buffy's attention. She looked and saw the rest of her group hurrying to join them from behind the building. As she saw them approach, she noticed that the figure she had seen lying on the ground before was gone. Maybe she had just imagined it. There was no time to investigate now.

Turning back to Gabrielle and her erstwhile rescuer, she said, "All right, let's everybody calm down."

"Calm down?" cried Gabrielle. "That's easy for you to say. You're the ones who brought us here. How are we supposed to be calm in a place where the torches burn without smoke or fire and the chariots move by themselves?" Her eyes grew large as she thought for a moment, then asked, "This... this isn't Mount Olympus, is it?"

"What's going on?" cried Willow as the rest of the group arrived. "We heard shouting. Is everything all right?"

"Everything's fine," Bashir answered. "We just have some more new arrivals."

"We didn't bring you here," Buffy told Gabrielle. "And you're not on Mount Olympus. You're in Sunnydale."

"Never heard of it," Gabrielle replied. "Is that anywhere near Thebes?"

"Thebes, as in ancient Greece?" asked Marcus.

"It may be getting a bit run down, but I'd hardly call it 'ancient.'"

"Funny, you don't look Greek," said Bashir. "Or sound Greek, either."

"Don't be ridiculous," Gabrielle said. "We're on our way to Thebes right now. A friend of mine is meeting us there."

"It would seem that we're faced with another example of history taking a different course on parallel worlds," said Garak.

"Hey, it's all Greek to me," said Xander. He quickly regretted saying it, though, when it became obvious that no one was amused.

Kes stepped forward, trying to calm the newcomers' fears. "It's all right," she said. "I know this place must seem strange, but we're not going to hurt you."

Kes's appearance seemed to bewilder Gabrielle even more, but after a moment the woman relaxed. The man remained defiantly on his guard, but no one took much notice.

Buffy turned back to the rest of her team. "Okay," she said, "it looks like everything's quiet out here. Maybe the vampires really have turned in early."

"There's still the inside of the building to check," Marcus reminded her.

Buffy grimaced. She knew the Ranger was right, but she didn't enjoy the thought of explaining her guests to the Bronze regulars. This night was becoming more complicated by the minute.

"All right," she said at last, "but you guys are on your own when it comes to the cover charge."

As Willow and Xander led the others back to the Bronze's entrance, Buffy watched the man who had arrived with Gabrielle. "Fine, fine!" he muttered. "Go ahead and ignore me. I'm Joxer the Mighty, you know! You'll rue the day you turned your back on me!"

"Are you going to come in with us?" said Buffy. "Or are you going to stand there all day threatening yourself?"

"Well," said Joxer, "if you put it that way, I guess I'll come in."

"Fine," said Buffy. "Just put that sword away before I hurt you."

"I'd like to see you try, little la-DEEEEE!" Joxer's last syllable stretched into a groan as Buffy delivered a punch to his midsection. It wasn't a hard punch. A vampire would barely have felt it. But it was enough to get Joxer's attention.

"You know," Joxer gasped, "the more things change, the more they stay the same."

***

Buffy knew something was wrong from the moment she entered the Bronze. Things looked all right, and she didn't sense any vampires nearby, but her ears told her that something was definitely amiss.

Willow and Xander knew as well. "I thought there wasn't supposed to be a band playing tonight," said Willow.

"Never mind that," said Xander. "Since when did this place become the House of Blues?"

Sure enough, there was a band on-stage, but the blues tunes they played were like nothing the Bronze had heard in many years. As she drew closer to the stage, Buffy began to understand what was happening. This was no ordinary band playing. In all likelihood, it was made up entirely of more visitors from across the dimensions - a truly cosmic pick-up group.

The lead singer was a fortysomething black man with a voice that made Buffy wonder if he was a big star back wherever he was from. The way he looked at the red-haired young woman playing keyboards suggested that the two knew each other. There were two guitarists. An older bearded man sat playing a complex lead part while a teenage girl not much older than Buffy watched him closely and tried to keep up, with only partial success. Behind them, a large bearded man played trombone, while a young Asian man played clarinet. The two men were dressed in a similar style, with matching pins on their chests.

As Buffy looked closer, she realized that the Asian man was wearing the same kind of black jumpsuit that Kes's Doctor had changed into, but with yellow shoulders. She turned just in time to see Kes's face light up at the sight of him.

"Harry!" cried Kes. "What are you doing here?"

Harry, the Asian man, looked up, saw Kes, and promptly missed his solo entrance. The ensemble, which had only been playing as well as a thrown-together group could be expected to play anyway, abruptly fell apart. The music came to a sudden halt as Harry jumped off the stage and went to Kes's side.

"Kes!" cried Harry. "I'm glad you're all right. We were looking all over the ship for you and the Doctor. During the search, I detected a subspace anomaly. The next thing I knew, I was here."

"We thought there was a holodeck malfunction," said Kes.

"Of course," Bashir commented wryly. "It seems you can't have one without the other."

Garak was looking at the bearded man with the trombone. "Julian," he said to Bashir, "isn't that Commander William Riker, from the Enterprise?"

"It is indeed," said Bashir. Walking over to the man, he said, "Welcome to Sunnydale, Commander."

"If you say so," Riker replied. "Do we know each other?"

Bashir considered the matter, as if for the first time. "Perhaps not - yet," he said. "But rest assured, I am part of Starfleet."

"Really?" said Riker. "I didn't recognize you in your... dress uniform."

Bashir looked at his tuxedo self-consciously. "This?" he said, "This has a, uh, rather simple explanation."

"I'm sure the Commander will find it a most interesting story," Garak remarked.

Out of the corner of her eye, Buffy saw the girl with the guitar leave the stage to join the group. Xander was moving toward her in an instant, his face fixed in an expression that Buffy had come to know only too well.

"Uh, hi," Xander said to the girl.

"Hi," the girl replied.

So far, so good, thought Buffy, who simply couldn't stop herself from listening in.

"So," Xander continued, "do you play around much?"

"What?" said the girl, looking a bit amused.

Buffy couldn't help noticing that at times like this, Xander's brain always heard what his mouth said about five seconds after everyone else did.

"Um, I... uh, I mean...," Xander stammered on. "Do you play with it a lot?" Catching himself, he added, "Your guitar, I mean."

"Oh, yeah. Not as much as I'd like, really. I kind of have this after-school job that keeps me pretty busy. It's nice to get the chance to play tonight. I like getting out every now and then, going to new places..."

"Well, this is one new place you can definitely go," said Xander. "It's not new for me, of course, I go here all the time... and I guess now that you're here, it's not new for you, either... but you could still... go... here..." Realizing that he was beginning to babble, Xander stopped for a moment, then said, "Why don't I just start over? I know, I'll tell you my name. I'm Xander."

"I'm Kimberly. Kimberly Hart."

"So," said Xander, feeling a bit more confident, "where did you come from? How did you end up at the Bronze? Let me tell you, there are people here tonight who have really weird answers to those questions."

Buffy strained to hear Kimberly's answer, but Xander and the girl turned away from her and began walking to a nearby table. As she tried not to look like she was eavesdropping,

Buffy noticed that Willow had also seen Xander with his new friend, and was definitely not pleased with the sight.

"I shouldn't be watching this, should I?" said Willow as Buffy joined her.

"Might be better if you didn't," Buffy agreed.

"I don't suppose she's from some parallel world where the women break out in purple warts after nine o'clock."

Buffy shrugged. "We can hope."

The two friends turned back to the rest of their group. They were a large crowd, even without the usual Bronze patrons, who were slowly filing out at the sight of the guests. The group didn't seem to mind being deserted by the locals. At the moment they were mingling, meeting their fellow visitors, and sharing stories of how they had ended up in Sunnydale. Buffy took Willow and plunged into the middle of it all, hoping to take her friend's mind off other matters.

After a while, the girls happened upon the black man and the red-haired woman who had been part of the makeshift band. "Hey, nice singing," Buffy said to the black man. "Do you do that professionally or something?"

"Does the name Rembrandt Brown mean anything to you?" the black man asked.

"No," said Buffy. "Do you work with him?"

The black man's face fell. He turned to the red-haired woman and said, "I guess you can only be world-famous on so many worlds."

The red-haired woman turned to Buffy and Willow. "You'll have to forgive Remmie," she said. "We just came from someplace where everyone recognized him. I guess he got used to it again."

"We're sorry," said Willow.

"On the other hand," the woman continued, "I already know you won't recognize me. I'm Wade Welles, and I'm not famous anywhere - that I know about."

Buffy and Willow introduced themselves just in time to for two more visitors to approach their group. One of them was a young man Buffy thought was attractive, albeit in a science-nerd sort of way. The other newcomer was a woman wearing clothes that almost screamed "trying too hard" - ridiculously short camouflage shorts and a shirt that was tight enough to be illegal in some states.

"Sorry to interrupt," said the young man, "but we really need to talk to Wade and Remmie for a moment." He reached into his pocket and pulled out some kind of electronic device. "Guys," he said, "I think we may have a problem with the timer."

"They have repair shops in town for that thing if you need one," Buffy offered.

The young man looked up in amazement. "They do?" he asked. "You mean you know what this is?"

"Sure," said Buffy. "You know, they usually work better if you're in the same room as your VCR."

The woman in the camouflage shorts snorted contemptuously. The young man simply seemed amused. "It's not for programming a VCR," he said. "I know this will sound incredible, but it's a device for traveling across an interdimensional vortex. We're really from another world."

"Who isn't, tonight?" said Willow.

The young man focused his full attention on Willow. "What do you know about other worlds?" he asked.

"Just that people are showing up from all kinds of different times and places," Willow replied, suddenly feeling self-conscious. "I thought you would have noticed all the people who were here - and the aliens."

"We've been sliding so long, it's hard to tell what's normal on the worlds we visit," said Rembrandt.

"'Sliding?'" Buffy repeated. "You mean like that Arturo guy?"

"Professor Maximilian Arturo?" gasped Wade.

"Yeah, that's him," said Buffy. "He's back at the high school library."

"It can't be," said Wade.

"It's probably his double," said Rembrandt. He turned to Buffy and Willow and explained, "Sometimes we run into doubles of ourselves along the way. Kind of like seeing how you might have turned out if things were different. That must be who's in your library. You see, the Professor we know is dead."

"Unless," said the young man, "we took the wrong Professor with us that one time. We never did find out for sure, you know."

"That's enough, Q-Ball," said Rembrandt. "Haven't we been through that enough times?"

"Remmie, it fits," Q-Ball retorted. "Maybe the real Professor's been looking for us all this time..."

"He did say he was looking for one of his students," said Willow.

"That would be me," said Q-Ball. "My name's Quinn Mallory, despite what Remmie calls me."

"Look," said Buffy, "if you guys are such experts in this parallel world thing, maybe you should go help out at the library. There are a lot of people trying to figure out how everyone got here. Maybe you could give them a hand."

"We might have to," said Quinn. Holding up the controller, he said, "This device was supposed to tell us when to slide to our next world, but something's interfering with it. If the Professor's at this library..."

"Mallory," said the woman in the camouflage shorts, "I hate to spoil your reunion plans, but we can't afford to go running around on a wild goose chase. If we miss the slide, it'll be twenty-nine years before we can catch up to Rickman, and by then, he'll be old and gray and hardly worth killing."

"Gee, you're a lot of fun," Buffy remarked. "Who's this Rickman guy? An old boyfriend?"

"He was my commanding officer," said the woman. "I'm Captain Maggie Beckett, United States Army. Rickman betrayed the troops under his command - among other things."

Buffy gave Maggie a dubious look. "You're supposed to be in the Army?" she said. "When did they start giving out uniforms like that?"

Maggie started to reply, but Wade stepped between her and Buffy before she could. "Uh, Buffy, why don't I introduce you to Harry Kim, the clarinet player?" said Wade. "I know you wanted to meet him."

"I did?" said Buffy. Seconds later, she got the hint. "Oh, yeah. Right," she said as she allowed Wade to drag her away. Willow remained behind, talking with Quinn.

"Sorry to do that," said Wade, "but I've gone up against Maggie a few times myself. You wouldn't enjoy it."

"If you say so," Buffy replied.

***

Willow thought Quinn Mallory seemed like a good person to talk to. He had a brilliant scientific mind, and he didn't treat her like she was just a kid. The only problem was that if he kept smiling at her like that, Willow would soon become flustered, and then she would have to go away.

Fortunately, the older man who had been playing guitar in the blues band came to her rescue. Well, he didn't know he was coming to her rescue, of course, but his interruption rescued her just the same.

"Hey, that was some pretty fine singing you did," the older man said as he walked up to Rembrandt. "If you're ever in Seacouver, you should look me up. I own a blues bar there. You'd be a hit."

"Thanks," said Rembrandt. "I should have known you were a blues man through and through." He turned to Willow, Quinn and Maggie. "Guys, this is Joe Dawson. You may have noticed he can play a little guitar."

As Willow introduced herself, she noticed that Joe walked with a cane. There was something odd about his legs, but she couldn't quite figure out what it was.

"They're not real," Joe said to her.

"Huh?" Willow felt herself blush.

"My legs," Joe replied. "Vietnam took care of the real ones."

"Oh," said Willow. "Sorry, I... I didn't mean to stare."

"It's all right," Joe assured her. "Just means you're observant. I like that in a person."

"Willow says there are a lot more people stuck here like us," Rembrandt told Joe. "A bunch of them are back at some library trying to figure out what's going on."

"Do you think they'll have any luck?" Joe asked.

"I'm sure they'll figure it out sooner or later," Willow replied. "They all seem pretty smart, and Giles, the librarian, has information on just about every kind of weird thing there is. He has to, since he's a Watch - " She stopped herself abruptly.

"A what?" Joe asked, growing intensely curious.

"A watch... a watch collector," Willow lied feebly. "You know how it is when you collect stuff. You've got to be prepared for anything." She squirmed uncomfortably, then added, "I... I have to go away now."

"Wait!" Joe said. "I'd like to talk to you some more. We may have more in common than you know."

Willow felt her ability to talk slipping away, so she merely smiled at the man instead. As he took her aside, Willow found herself wondering what she had gotten into.

***

Harry Kim was still talking to Kes when Buffy and Wade approached. "Kes has been telling me about what's happening," he told Buffy as she reached him. "I'd like to help out if I can."

"Harry's very good with time-space anomalies," Kes explained. "We've run into several of them before."

"Right now, I'm worried about our other problem," said Buffy. "We still haven't seen anything of the vamp... our less-invited guests."

"Maybe Marcus was wrong, and they're really not here," Kes suggested.

"Who's not here?" asked Wade.

"You don't want to know," said Buffy.

At that moment, Buffy heard someone gasp behind her. She turned and saw the trombone player - Will Riker, if she remembered correctly - staring across the room.

"I don't believe it," said Riker

Buffy followed his gaze and saw another new arrival enter the Bronze. This one was a woman with short, blonde hair, dressed in an outfit similar to the one Riker and Harry were wearing, but much more form-fitting.

"Commander?" said the woman, looking perplexed. "What are we doing here? And when did you grow that beard?"

"Tasha Yar," said Riker. "Is it really you?"

"Of course," said Tasha. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

End of Chapter 4

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