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.

In all the years they had spent training him to be a Watcher, Giles's father and grandmother never prepared him for something like this.

He had learned all about the strange creatures who walked the Earth, but never about the ones who walked on other planets. Tonight, there were several of the latter in his library.

At least two of the aliens were being civilized. Lennier sat in a corner, where he appeared to be meditating. Zathras, meanwhile, was doing his best to be helpful. He was even willing to retrieve the various books Giles needed from the stacks.

Unfortunately, Giles's more human-looking guests were being somewhat less cooperative. The three men calling themselves "The Doctor" - whichever versions they might be - had been quarreling among themselves and with Professor Arturo ever since Buffy and the others left for the Bronze. They hurled technical jargon at each other faster than Giles could follow.

"It's obvious that whoever caused this phenomenon has somehow overcome the Blinovitch Limitation Effect."

"Well, of course it's obvious, but what good does that do us? Blinovitch factors have nothing to do with the cyclic burst ratio."

"You're both forgetting to account for Podowski embolisms in the space-time vortex!"

"Of course we are, because Podowski embolisms aren't relevant. What if we reversed the polarity of the neutron flow?"

"That's your answer to everything, isn't it? You don't even know which neutron flow you want to reverse."

"In all the time-space phenomena we encountered on Voyager, we were always careful to record the level of vertron particles in our subspace field."

"That's lovely, but you won't find vertron particles within three planetary diameters of a gravity well this size."

Giles wished his books had been more useful. If he found some answers, maybe this incomprehensible banter would stop. The books, however, stubbornly refused to yield any secrets. He closed the last one in frustration. This exercise was going nowhere, and it was taking his mind with it.

Through all the noise and commotion, Lennier continued to remain calm. Giles watched the alien for a moment, wondering what his secret was. Apparently, Lennier sensed Giles's attention, because after a few seconds he opened his eyes and stared back at the librarian.

"I'm not disturbing you, am I?" Giles asked.

"You are," said Lennier, "but it is not important. You appear to be troubled by these events. Is there some way I can be of assistance?"

"Just tell me how you manage to sit there and not look bothered."

"We are taught much about patience in Temple," Lennier said. "The Universe does not give up its riddles easily - and this is an especially large riddle. We cannot expect the answer to be simple and quick. We can only wait and hope that we are where we should be when the answer arrives."

Giles was still considering Lennier's reply when Zathras returned from the stacks, interrupting all of them.

"Not good," Zathras was muttering to himself. "Others will not be pleased. Will say Zathras has gone quite mad, they will. Quite mad."

"Zathras, what's going on?" asked Giles as the alien arrived. "Where are those books I asked you to find?"

"Much apologizings," said Zathras. "Zathras still learning Dewey Decimal System. Most complicated."

"You don't need to learn the Dewey Decimal System," said Giles. "I told you exactly where the books were."

"Yes, yes, Zathras understands. You say books are on this shelf. Zathras goes to this shelf. You say books are on that shelf. Zathras goes to that shelf..."

"I get the idea," said Giles. "What are you talking about?"

"Zathras goes to shelf, but shelf is not there. Zathras thinks, perhaps Zathras has become confused. Then Zathras sees there are many more shelves than before. Must learn Dewey Decimal System to discover where correct shelf has gone."

"What do you mean, 'many more shelves than before'?" Giles asked.

"Zathras knew you would be saying that," replied Zathras. "Come and see."

By now the others in the library had taken an interest in the conversation. The entire group hurried up the stairs and into the stacks. The stood there gaping at the sight they found.

The library had expanded to several times its normal size. Where there had previously been a simple set of bookshelves, there was now a cavernous interior, filled with more books than even Giles could read in a lifetime.

"It's incredible," Giles whispered to himself.

"It's impossible," said Arturo.

"It looks like the same effect you'll find on the inside of a TARDIS," said the tall, curly-haired Doctor. He turned to his smaller counterpart and added, "And you said we wouldn't need a magnifactoid eccentricolometer to figure this out."

***

"Buffy? Buffy, can you hear me?"

Willow. That was Willow's voice. She was calling. She sounded worried.

"There, you see? She moved. I think she's waking up."

"Buffy? Can you hear me? If you can hear me, I want you to open your eyes."

Who was that? It was a woman's voice, but Buffy didn't recognize it.

She turned her head toward the woman's voice and slowly opened her eyes. The lights seemed incredibly bright, and Buffy had to blink several times before her eyes adjusted and she could see. Willow was hovering over her, visibly relieved that Buffy was awake. Next to her was a red-haired woman wearing a trench coat. Buffy vaguely remembered her from the fight in the Bronze.

The fight in the Bronze! It was all coming back to her. There was that big guy she thought was Luke the vampire, and those fumes that sprayed out of his body. What was that all about? Maybe someone had found out while she was unconscious.

"Wh... what hit me?" Buffy finally managed to say. Her throat felt like she needed a glass of water - a several-gallon-sized glass of water.

"Just relax, Buffy," said the woman. "I'm a doctor."

"You may be a doctor, but you're not the Doctor," said Buffy, as the phrase from earlier in the evening popped into her head.

The woman looked confused. Willow couldn't help smiling. "Buffy, this is Dana Scully," said Willow. "She's an FBI Agent as well as a doctor."

"So am I sick or just under arrest?" Buffy asked.

"Actually, neither," said Scully. "I don't understand it. The fumes you were exposed to have killed people before. For some reason, they've hardly affected you at all. You're a very lucky girl."

Buffy could hear Giles in her head, saying "If you were anyone but the Slayer..." She decided it was probably best not to explain that fact about herself to the FBI. "How's everyone else?" she asked, trying to change the subject.

"We're still finding out," Scully replied.

"And the vampires?"

Scully seemed uncomfortable with the question. Willow answered instead. "Some of them got away."

It wasn't the answer Buffy was hoping for. If vampires were still on the loose, it meant the night wasn't over yet. "I have to go after them," she said, trying to sit up.

"Now, wait just a minute," Scully objected. "Even if you aren't hurt, a girl like you has no business chasing dangerous fugitives. You're better off leaving it to the authorities."

"When it comes to these guys," Buffy replied, "I am 'the authorities.'"

"Buffy! Are you all right?"

Xander hurried over to join the group, with Kimberly right behind him. Buffy instantly noticed a dark purple bruise across Xander's jaw.

"I'm fine," she said. "What happened to you?"

"What, this?" Xander said. "It's nothing. I just forgot to duck." Trying to be nonchalant and macho at the same time, he added, "I guess it just goes with the territory when you're fighting the forces of darkness." He stole a sidelong glance at Kimberly. Probably to see how impressed she was, Buffy thought.

"I'd better see how the rest of the group is doing," Willow said, suddenly in a hurry to get up.

"I'll come with you," said Buffy. She knew her friend needed her, and she wanted to check on everyone anyway.

The Bronze was a wreck. Every piece of furniture was broken. Even the stage and the walls showed signs of damage. Fixing the place was going to take days. It was enough to make Buffy wish she had stayed unconscious.

As if the damage to the Bronze wasn't bad enough, Buffy also had to face the fact that several members of their group were hurt. Rembrandt, Maggie, Joxer and Garak had all been moved to one central spot, where Gabrielle, Kes and Bashir tended to them. Only Garak looked like he would be back on his feet any time soon.

Gabrielle hovered over Joxer the most, clearly anxious about him. Bashir came over to check on them both.

"He won't wake up," Gabrielle told the doctor. "I've only seen this kind of injury a few times. You can't tell if he'll ever wake up."

"You can with a bit of training," said Bashir as he examined the injured man. "I'd say he's going to be just fine. Even the limited facilities of this time period should be able to care for him."

Gabrielle relaxed visibly, but the tone of her voice grew harsh. "It figures Joxer would do this to me," she said. "We're carried off to the gods know where, and he goes and gets himself hurt so I have to take care of him. I'll bet he planned it this way."

"Well, if it'll make you feel better," said Bashir. "I'll never let him know how worried you are."

Buffy and Willow approached, and Bashir stood to meet them. "We need to send some of these people to your town's hospital," he told the girls. "Fortunately, there are no serious injuries - just some broken bones and a concussion or two. If I had my medkit, I could take care of them right here. As it is, we'll have to rely on what you think of as 'modern medicine.'"

"Don't worry," said Buffy. "We'll tell them to go easy on the beads and rattles."

Willow looked over to where Garak was sitting. "What about him?" she asked. "I don't think they take Cardassians at our hospital."

"Luckily for me, I won't be needing their assistance," said Garak. "I should be able to rejoin the group by the time you're ready to leave."

"Who said the group was going anywhere?" said Buffy.

"Well, I assumed that since some of our opponents got away, we would be setting out to find them."

"I'll be setting out to find them," Buffy insisted. "We already tried the gang-slaying thing. Just look around if you want to see how it went. I'm going after the rest of them by myself."

"You can't face them alone," said Bashir. "If they have more reinforcements, they'll be too much for you."

"Besides," added Garak, "I doubt you'll be able to convince many of these people to stay behind."

Buffy looked around the room at the rest of the group. Garak was right. Whoever these people were that had dropped into Sunnydale's lap that night, they were perfectly willing to see a fight through to the end. Several of them were busy equipping themselves to battle the undead. Ace was even using Leela's knife to sharpen the broken handle of her cricket bat into a better stake.

The Slayer's duty is to protect people from vampires, Buffy reminded herself. If she was going to do that, she would have to act quickly - and before anyone else noticed.

***

"Mulder, you're as crazy as that girl is!"

Unable to convince Buffy to stay put, Scully had gone to see what her partner was doing. For some reason, she had hoped Mulder would help her keep the situation under some semblance of control. She should have known better.

"You recognized him, Scully," Mulder was saying. "It was the same assassin we've seen before. If he's here, you can bet this is all tied up with the conspiracy we've been trying to uncover since you were first assigned to the X-Files. We've got to go after him."

"Mulder, I was hoping you'd help me stop these people from chasing after the... the..." She hesitated, unwilling to use the word the girls had used for their recent adversaries.

"The vampires?" Mulder said for her. "We've got to find them, too. They went out a different way, so we'll have to split up."

"Split up? Mulder, wait just a minute..."

Before Scully could argue the point further, the bearded Englishman - Marcus, if she remembered correctly - walked up and joined the discussion. "We've all talked it over," he said. "Several in the group have volunteered to stay behind and wait for medical assistance to arrive. When it does, Joe Dawson will accompany the wounded to the hospital, while the rest will head over to the high school."

"What's at the high school?" Mulder asked.

"A number of our friends, all trying to figure out how we got here in the first place."

"Got here from where?" Scully asked. She had been too busy looking after Buffy to hear that information before.

"All over the cosmos, apparently," Marcus replied. "Different times, different planets, different universes. I'm not much of a scientist myself, so I didn't stick around for the full explanation."

It was time for Scully to draw the line. "Mulder, can I see you for a moment?" she demanded, pulling him aside.

For his part, Mulder was as excited by the night's events as Scully was dubious about them. "Scully, do you realize what this means?" he said.

"Better than you do," Scully retorted. "It means that if we're not careful, we'll end up in adjoining rooms at whatever mental hospital these people escaped from."

"Look, I'll admit their story is a little fantastic..."

"A little?" Scully exclaimed. "Mulder, what these people are suggesting is beyond even the most extreme possibilities."

"Then how do you explain what we've seen?" Mulder shot back. "What's your explanation for Max Fenig and Agent Pendrell attacking us when we both know they're dead, and how is it that a stake through the heart made them turn to dust? And if these are mental patients, then how do you explain that one guy who looks like he belongs on 'Wild World of Reptiles'?"

Scully was at a loss for words. "I can't - yet," she replied at last. "But that doesn't mean I'm just going to take these people's word for what's going on."

"I'm not saying you should," Mulder replied. "In fact, it sounds like they could use another person with a logical, scientific mind. Maybe you should join the group at the high school."

Before Scully could reply, Mulder turned back to Marcus. "As I was suggesting to my partner," he said, "we'll probably have to split up if we want to catch both the assassin and the vampires."

"Right," said Marcus. "The trouble is, we don't know where any of them went. You appear to know something about our noxious fume friend. I was hoping you had some idea where we could find him."

"I don't know if I have any ideas," Mulder replied, "but I always seem to run into the guy without even trying."

"Well, maybe you'll get lucky again," said Marcus. "We can always hope. And as for the vampires, it's obvious that our local expert is..."

"Buffy!"

Willow ran up to them, looking panicked. "Buffy's gone!" she cried. "She said she had to go to the bathroom, but she slipped out instead. I think she's gone to fight the vampires by herself."

"Why would she do something like that?" asked Scully.

"You don't know Buffy," Willow replied. "She feels responsible for us, since she's the Slayer and all. I should have watched her more carefully."

"Well," said Marcus, "at least now we don't have to worry about finding the vampires."

"We don't?" said Scully.

"No," said Marcus. "All we have to do is find Buffy. She'll find the vampires for us."

End of Chapter 7

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