The Library, that Afternoon
By the time Buffy, Willow and Xander were able to get back to the library, Giles and the others had combed almost every relevant source he could think of for information on the chronos stone.
"It's truly amazing," said Giles as he paced back and forth in front of the others, "the chronos stone has some properties - or alleged properties - that I've simply never come across in an occult artifact."
"Such as?" Buffy asked, trying (for her Watcher's sake) to appear interested, when she really just wanted him to come to the point.
"Well, didn't you notice that Xena and the others speak and read English perfectly? Didn't it strike you as odd?"
"No more odd than anything else about them," replied Buffy. "My mind was sort of otherwise occupied, you know, with the whole Slaying thing?"
"They shouldn't have been able to speak the language at all! In their time, English doesn't exist. As a language, it won't exist for some time, at least, not in a form that we would recognize today. The stone corrected this for them. According to this book," Giles held up a particularly moldy looking tome, "the chronos stone, when used correctly, will 'protect and aid the possessor in his or her quest.'"
"So the chronos stone somehow *knows* who is using it, and why?" Willow looked interested.
"Yes, but that's not all. It seems that Autolycus didn't actually break the stone when he fell."
"Yes! Off the hook!" Autolycus' celebration was cut off by the glares of the library's other occupants.
Clearing his throat, Giles continued, "When the chronos stone came into contact with two people who had two distinctly different 'quests' in mind--in this case, when Autolycus grabbed the stone from Bacchus--it tried to fulfill both possessors' wishes, and split into two halves."
Joxer looked puzzled. "But, all of us touched the stone to get here. How come it didn't break into 5 pieces?"
"Presumably because none of you were thinking directly about time travel or focusing on the stone. Your thoughts were jumbled and confused, about stopping Bacchus, protecting each other, or preventing some unknown disaster. Bacchus was the only one trying to focus on travelling to the past..."
"Only, he focused a little too hard, and in the totally wrong direction. Not the sharpest crayon in the box, is he?" Xander leaned back in his chair and looked at Xena. "Isn't he supposed to be a god or something? Shouldn't he be able to do this time travel thing automatically?"
"Giles and I think that Bacchus' powers were only partially restored by Dahok, in order to keep him under control," the warrior replied. "It makes sense. Bacchus was never much of a fighter, but he's really been trying to avoid a one-on-one confrontation since we caught up to him -- hiding behind other bacchae or running."
Giles continued, "Dahok's power also offers an explanation as to how Bacchus ended up here. As a demon, Dahok would draw power from a hellmouth, and vice versa. If Bacchus got his power from Dahok, and channeled it into the chronos stone, the hellmouth would sense the drain and try to reverse it in order to preserve equilibrium. Throw in the unpredictable nature of time travel, the fact that Bacchus' concentration was compromised by Xena and the others, the proximity of Sunnydale to a hellmouth, and - well - here we are."
Buffy stood up. "Well, I'm glad the stone was so eager to please, but what exactly does this *mean*, Giles?"
"It gives us a way to put the stone back together, I think, but it also poses a problem."
"Well of *course* it does. Never any easy solutions on the hellmouth." Xander emphasized his point by stuffing a whole Twinkie into his mouth. He waved the empty wrapper at Xena, and mumbled, "Vese aw vewy dood. Wan un?" She merely stared at him, but Gabrielle looked interested.
"So, Giles, what do we need to do, you know, to fix the stone?" Willow had picked up one half of the stone and was handling it gingerly.
"We simply need to have two people touch the halves of the stone together and concentrate on one destination."
"So let's get started," said Buffy, picking up the other half of the stone. "Who's the other volunteer?"
"Wait, Buffy. Here's the complicated part." Giles resumed his pacing. "The people who put it together have to be the ones who split it. Bacchus and Autolycus. And on the hellmouth, with Dahok's involvement..."
"It all becomes a big happy ball of complex." Buffy sighed and put the stone down. "The good news is, we won't have to worry about finding Bacchus once the sun goes down."
"And the bad news is, he's not exactly known for his docile temperament." Xena looked at Buffy. "We need to lure him somewhere enclosed, but big enough to fight in."
Buffy, Xander, and Willow replied together, "The Bronze." Willow continued, "It shouldn't be too crowded tonight--one of Cordelia's friends is having a birthday party--but once things start happening everyone will clear out fast. We're sort of used to fleeing the Bronze by now."
"Good," said Xena. "If you can hold off the local talent, maybe I can immobilize him long enough to get the stone into his hand and place a suggestion into his head." She looked at Autolycus. "How about 'home?'"
Autolycus nodded. "I've been thinking about home since we left. My concentration shouldn't be a problem."
Giles had removed his glasses and was rubbing the bridge of his nose. "I don't suppose I need to tell you that this plan is the most vague, ill-thought-out, possibly doomed exercise I've ever heard." He stopped and met Buffy's and Xena's determined stares. "No, I suppose I don't."
Gabrielle was finishing off a Twinkie with satisfaction as she stepped up to Giles and clapped him on the back hard enough to knock the librarian off balance. "Don't worry, Giles. Xena'll pull it off. Somehow." She tried to smile reassuringly, but gave up, sighed, and grabbed her staff. "It'll be sundown soon. I guess we'd better get moving."
Silently, everyone began preparing for the evening ahead.
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