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"Funny," Willow told herself, "how I remember every bit of it but can't even understand myself. Sheesh." She was probably just lost, that was all. Blacked out or whatever, and Angel had just been in her fanta - er, daydream. Or was it a nightdream, really?
No matter how Willow tried to explain it, this was definitely not the cemetery and she was not nightdreaming. This became clear when she bumped into Angel, coming out of a large trailer parked in the middle of the grass. That in itself was not normal, but the fact that he was eating a candy bar made it *extremely* weird. Willow tried to hide from him, worried that she might have done something, well, weird back at the cemetery, but it was no use. He noticed her immediately!
"Aly! Come here!" Willow raised an eyebrow and pointed at herself. "Angel" just laughed. "No, the other Alyson I know."
"Is something wrong with you?" she asked him, gesturing at the Nestle's Crunch.
It was his turn now to look confused. "No. I like chocolate."
Willow was about to say something along the lines of "Since WHEN?" when she got the shock of her life. Drusilla ran up to them, breathing hard and trembling, dressed not in her usual white flowy thingie but in a really cool black mini. She was definitely not weak, but scared out of her tank top. She grabbed Angel by the shoulder, and to Willow's distress he held her close as she started to cry madly.
"What's wrong? What happened?" he asked her, taking a handkerchief out of his black jeans and handing it to her. This was still *way* weird. The more Willow told herself that, the better she felt.
"Sarah's been kidnapped!" Drusilla spat out amidst her tears. "She was fighting this - this THING, and it looked a lot like a vampire, and I can't believe it, but I think it - and it - and she's -"
Willow was getting really, REALLY freaked now. She just wanted to be back at the Bronze. Where were Buffy and Xander?
"Oh, God!" Angel dropped his candy bar and took her by the hand. "Where did it happen, Jules? Can you show me? Have you called the police?"
All she could do was shake her head repeatedly and then sniffle again. "Wait!" Willow cried. "Okay, I don't think I'm dreaming, so stop playing games. You -" and she turned to Angel - "are not at all acting like yourself. What happened? And YOU-" pointing at Drusilla - "are, well, you're, you're also ... not yourself. At ALL," she added, staring at the girl's micromini again. "So, please, where am I? What happened to the Sunnydale Cemetery? What have you guys done with Buffy?"
"I'm right here," came a voice from behind them. "But as for everyone else we know, Will, that's a total different story."
Sarah sat up, her head aching. She had been scuffling with that ... THING behind the guys' trailer, and Juliet ran up, and she'd said, going directly against her belief system, to get her a *stake*. She was actually going to kill the thing!
Her vision cleared as a figure came before her. Black leather maxi-coat, black jeans, a red button-down ... was James getting too into the part tonight or what? "Well, I'll be," he said serenely, flashing her a terribly evil smile. "It worked."
"Uh, James?" she asked, now fully puzzled. "Aren't you going to help me?"
He ignored her altogether. "Well, *worked* is such a strong word. I prefer 'wreaked the right amount of mayhem'. But isn't this FUN, Sarah?"
"Actually, no." She stood up on her own, just a little tentatively. "It's not fun, or fun-ny, or any kind of jolly derivative. And where ARE we, James? I'm supposed to meet Charisma in a half-hour."
"Oh, she'll be here pretty soon," he cooed devilishly. "By the way, you're in Sunnydale Cemetery. And," he replied, face shifting and squishing into the same vampiric countenance she'd seen earlier that evening, "I'm NOT James."
Giles rubbed his temples. He had been up all night researching the theories of parallel dimensions, waiting for Willow to call once she got home. He had had the most amazing discovery!
Honestly, it was hard even for a man such as Giles to comprehend this. But Jenny had been right; it was all true. The Codex even referred to it, however subtly. It personally mystified him. That she had gone on such a weird tip, first of all, and that the Technopagans knew about the alternate world structure before anyone else did. Actually, the second thing didn't surprise him. Those pitiful techno-junkies were probably spending their time these days trying to get into the "X-Files" world. Giles considered if he was the only one aware of the implications of such a continuum.
"Imagine if someone figured out how to open a dimension," he mused out loud. "The total confusion and astonishment that would result from seeing one's own double, the potential for murder that's twice as effective."
"Tell me about it," muttered the man in front of him. Giles looked up and saw his twin brother. Same height, same build, only a little scruffier. Dressed more trendy, yes, and had no glasses. But a twin just the same.
He didn't HAVE a brother!