PART FIVE - EXPLANATIONS
"Who plays me?" Xander asked. He really wanted to know. He hoped whoever it was didn't have the same name in real life.
"His name's Nicholas Brendon," Lara answered. She seemed more relaxed than she'd appeared in the Bronze. Xander could understand why. If he was transported to the world of The Matrix or some other movie he'd be really freaked, too, but after spending an hour in their company who wouldn't relax? Well, vampires and demons wouldn't, but Lara wasn't either of those.
"What about me? Who plays me?" Anya asked. "She'd better be pretty. Does she go out with Nick?"
"Um, I don't know if they're going out," Lara answered, "but you're played by Emma Caulfield."
Lara then pointed to everyone and said a name. "Alyson Hannigan, Amber Benson, and Anthony Stewart Head," she said, starting on Willow and ending on Giles, with Tara in-between.
"Head? His name is Head?" Willow asked, pointing at Giles.
"There's nothing wrong with the name Head," Giles said defensively. "It's a perfectly good English name."
"Amber's a good name," Tara said. "What about Spike, Dawn, Buffy, or Joyce?"
"Forget about Spike," Willow said. "He's nothing but a bad…vampire person."
Lara winced. "Oh, yeah. I almost forgot about what happened."
"What happened?" Giles asked.
Lara shifted in her seat again. "What Spike did to Buffy."
"Forget about Spike," Willow repeated. "Let's just not say his name for the rest of the evening, okay?"
Everyone agreed, and Lara said Joyce's, Buffy's, and Dawn's actresses' names. Thinking about Joyce, Lara remembered what would take place in future episodes, such as 'The Body.' Should I tell them? She wasn't sure if that was a good idea. After all, she had no idea what she would be screwing up if she told too much about the future. But was that really up to her? From the looks of it, she'd have plenty of time to decide.
They adapted to the idea of a world where their lives were a TV show a little easier than Lara would have expected anyone. She really shouldn't be surprised; she'd seen them all brush off apocalypses like they were nothing.
The phone rang. Giles got up to answer it readily. He had too many jokes about Anthony Head to want to be anywhere near the others at the moment. Lara half-listened to the conversation while the others continued to bombard her with numerous questions.
"Hello, Magic Box," he said. "Joyce? Have you seen Buffy? She hasn't shown up. You haven't, either? Oh, dear…Please have her call me when she comes home. Bye."
He returned to the table. "Mrs. Summers hasn't seen her either?" Willow asked, worried. Everyone was worried, including Lara. It was getting late, and Buffy normally didn't stay out on patrol at this hour.
Xander stood up. "I'll scout the cemeteries. Anyone want to join me?"
Willow, Anya, and Tara volunteered. "I should get Ms. McIntyre settled onto my apartment's couch, then I'll join you at Sunnydale Cemetery. Tomorrow, everyone including Buffy can watch those videos Ms. McIntyre mentioned."
With that, they went their separate ways.
When Lyra heard the doorbell ring, it made her jump. She was distracted by Leon's phone call only forty minutes before. His voice had been shaking, and he told her that he was coming right over with Jake. She worried that something bad had happened.
So when the doorbell rang, she ran over and opened it. She was relieved to see Leon standing there and in one piece. "Leon!" she said, letting out a breath. She hugged him and then kissed him hard. "I was worried something bad had happened. Thank God you're all right!"
Leon pulled out of her clutch and smiled a little. "Well, something happened, but it wasn't bad…well, I guess that all depends on your point of view, actually…"
He stepped back, and Lyra took in the presence of Jake and…
Her eyes went wide and her mouth dropped.
"Sarah Michelle Gellar!" she exclaimed. "Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God!"
Leon tried to soothe her before she got too out of control. Buffy whispered to Jake, "Big fan, huh?"
"Really big," he answered. "Think we should tell her the truth?"
"She's not Sarah, she's Buffy Summers," Leon announced.
"I think your friend just did," the Slayer observed.
Darla dug through the pile of mail front of her. She and Drusilla were in the living room of a now dead family of five. It hadn't taken much effort to get invited into the house, and the kill had been exhilerating.
She had discovered that this was Los Angeles, but not the one she knew. She knew they were in a different world. She noticed a few differences. One, the papers didn't mention Wolfram and Hart at all, and she'd found a map of California. On the map, she'd found a Sunnyvale, but it didn't say anything about a Sunnydale.
They weren't as strong here, nor as fast or as swift. They couldn't jump as far as before, either, but they were still vampires. They could still vamp out and drink human blood.
Drusilla was walking around the room, looking at the dead family's pictures. She knocked a few over before continuing. "I'm bored," she said. "There are no vampires or demons here. Let's have some fun and show the world what our kind is like. Then we can all have tea and scones."
Darla flipped through a magazine and smiled. "Your right. This is getting boring-" Something on one of the pages caught her eye.
She stared at the picture. It was of Angel and herself, and they were standing out in broad daylight.
She read the caption and said, "Well, well. Our roles certainly are different here."
"Grandmother?" her psychotic companion questioned.
Darla tore the page out and stood up. "Let's go to Warner Brothers' Studios. We'll have plenty of fun there."
Angel flipped through his collection of books, looking for an explanation to what happened to Darla and Drusilla. He'd done this for the last three hours and he still couldn't find anything, and he was running out of books to look in. He may have to go over to Angel Investigations and borrow a few books. He'd probably better do it soon, while Gunn, Wesley, and Cordelia were still at the hospital.
He opened his last book and started flipping through it, then took a double-take. There was a picture of lightning in here and of a light that surrounded a demon. The picture was on the page opposite of words written in Latin. Angel started reading it.
"A transfer spell?" he wondered. "Transfer to where?"
The passage continued, saying that the spell worked on whomever the spell caster wished to transport to another world, and the same applied for anyone in the other world that he or she wished to transport to this world. Unfortunately, he thought with a curse, there was no known way to reverse or cast the spell, at least according to this book.
Angel sat back. Whoever cast the spell knew what the spell was. He frowned. Why was he worried? Darla and Drusilla were connected to Wolfram and Hart. With them gone, he'd have less to worry about. No, that's not it. He still cared for Darla, although not as a soulless demon. Also, whatever world they were in did not deserve them, and whoever cast the spell was too dangerous to ignore.
Angel put the book in his coat pocket and headed out the of Hyperion's lobby door. It was time for another visit to Caritas, Merl, and any other place, person, or demon he could get information.
Ben stepped out of the apartment building. The woman and her demon minion crouched in the bushes, waiting.
Only a few feet down the sidewalk, Ben paused with his back to them. He said tiredly, "What are you doing here, Iotta?"
Iotta stepped out of her hiding place and smiled. Ben turned to face her and glowered at her, but her expression never wavered.
"Ben, don't tell me you didn't miss me," she said, pleading a little. The image was lost, however, because of the demon that eyed Ben with distrust.
"Why are you here?" Ben asked.
"Doing what I always do, brother."
"I am not your brother."
Iotta became angry. "Just because you deny any relation to most of our relatives does not mean you can do the same to me!" She took a deep breath. "There you go again. You always get on my nerves."
"It's your charm," Ben said sarcastically. He nodded at the demon. The huge guy did nothing but keep staring. "Why is he here? You're not planning on fighting our sister with that, are you? She wouldn't even get a wrinkle in her dress over him."
"It's insurance," she stated. "You never know what you'll run into on the mouth of our former home."
"Why don't you just use your telekinesis?" he asked. "That's what your good at, after all."
"I save it for a last resort," Iotta answered, as if the answer was obvious. The question had been a stupid one; both of them new that when Iotta used her powers, she tended to be very destructive without intending to be.
"Then go to the Knights of Byzantium," he said. "They're after the same thing you are."
"Those jerks are morons who can't give up old ways and use Uzi's. They don't know where the Key is anymore than I do. You know where it is, though. Please, where is it, Ben?"
Ben bit his lip. The only thing they ever agreed on was that the Key should be destroyed. But he couldn't do that anymore, because the Key had a conscience, and it would be just like killing one of his patients intentionally, which he had sworn never to do.
"I can't tell you, Iotta," he answered. "The Key isn't what it used to be."
"Don't you remember what happened the last time Glory got her hands on the Key?" she asked, angered even more. Ben looked down. "She got back into Hell, and made everything much more worse than it already was. But we can prevent it! Don't you remember?"
"You know what they did when they sent her out of Hell again. They connected us. I can't help you now. I'm sorry." Ben moved faster than any eye could see, something he had in common with Glory, and fortunately something Iotta did not possess.
Iotta glared at the spot where Ben had been, then turned to her demon and said, "Come on. We're going to visit that vampire again. I think he knows more than he's going to tell us…willingly, at least."
