Part Three
"No, nobody here either," Buffy announced as she opened the doors and walked into the library. "Just as musty and deserted as everything else we've found so far. And it's dark."
"And I've got just the solution!" Xander gleefully called out. He reached into his duffel bag and extracted a small lantern.
"Geez, Xander, was there anything you didn't put in there?" Buffy asked him.
"Well, I thought of leaving the MRE's but then I decided, 'What the hell!' Why not?"
"MRE?" Cordelia asked acerbicly. "What's that, a missile or something?"
"Meals-Ready-to-Eat. MRE's. They're actually pretty good. Not that I've ever eaten any, but somehow I know they can be pretty tasty."
"Food?!" Oz, Buffy, and Cordelia all cried in unison.
"I forgot to eat before I got captured," Cordelia whined.
"I've been transforming into a werewolf. That eats up a lot of proteins."
"Xander, I'm the Slayer. Give me food or I'll turn you into a pretzel," was Buffy's reasoning.
Xander possessively held the bag to his chest. "Hey, now! You guys didn't carry this bag all the way here! It was heavy!"
"Xander," Cordelia sweetly cooed as she sidled up to him. "Could you please give me some of your food? Please?" The last 'please' she spoke with a breathless seductiveness.
"Okay, keep your food! I've got my pride." Buffy threw up her hands in resignation.
"Uh, yeah. I'm not that hungry." Oz's stomach gave a loud growl.
"Oh here!" Xander began to dig into his bag. "I've got three of them. Just save the M&M's for me."
"Oh, goody!" Buffy vapidly bubbled, doing her best valley girl impersonation.
While the kids had been arguing over the food, Giles had walked up into the stacks and began searching through the books there. He came out cursing and swearing, throwing the books to the floor.
"What is this place?!"
Buffy looked up from stuffing her face with a package of vacuum sealed noodle casserole.
"What's up Giles?"
"My books! These aren't my books!"
"Huh?"
"These aren't even books! They're all just blank pages! What is going on here? What has happened to Sunnydale?!"
"I guess that would be my cue," came a voice from the library doors. Everyone turned as they opened and an armored man strode into the dimly lit library.
Buffy came into a defensive stance as the helmeted man came towards her and stopped.
"Alright, Iron Man. Who are you supposed to be?"
The visored form looked back and forth between the members of the party.
"I guess I would be your resident 'Mysterious Stranger' here to help you," he explained with a trace of humor touching his voice.
"Sorry, but I think I've had my fill of mysterious strangers in my life. Now, you wanna tell us who you are, or should I just start peeling you out of that tin suit with my can opener here?" Buffy hefted the shortsword she still carried and glared at the motionless, armored warrior.
Giles looked on in shock and quickly made his way down the steps to the library floor. His eyes were locked on the knight.
"Wait, Buffy!" He came up beside her still staring at the new comer. "That symbol on his armor... do you see it?"
She looked at his chest and noticed the odd rune-like shape etched there in silver.
"Yeah, what about it?"
"Buffy, that symbol belongs to the Order of the Blade of God, a secret religious order of knights that were eradicated at the end of the fourteenth century. No one has worn that symbol in centuries!"
"It's been sometime since I met a mortal who recognized the rune. I'm flattered. Chill with the heavy firepower, friend," the knight motioned at Xander as he took up a position with his rifle pointed at the uninvited guest. "I'm not here to hurt anyone."
"Everyone, calm down," Giles tried to quell their fears.
"Giles, I don't care if he's holding the Holy Grail! He's weird and I'm not sure I trust him! Besides, anybody could be wearing that symbol thing."
"Gotta say I'm with Buffy on this one," Xander said with his rifle still trained on the armored man.
"No, no," Giles explained. "There's a reason why no one has worn that symbol. It is anathema to supernatural evil. They fear that sign. And it was reputed that a human who was not consecrated by the Order would be unable to ever reproduce the rune. And I am certain that this is the symbol. I don't know who he is, but I have no doubt we can trust him."
Buffy glared at Giles for not backing her up then turned her attentions back to the newcomer.
"Well, you've convinced my Watcher, but I'm not impressed. Now, I'll ask again: who are you and where are we?"
"You're the Slayer. I thought so... My name is not important. That fact that I'm a friend is. As to where you are, well that's kind of complicated."
"Try and explain."
He took a deep breath and turned to gaze expectantly at Xander with his rifle still aimed at him. Buffy motioned for Xander to lower the gun. The knight walked over to the table and placed his palms upon it.
"You are in the Sunnydale behind Sunnydale. The shadow aspect of the town. When an object has been in one place long enough, it begins to have a shape in the astral plane, namely here. Buildings, roads, they all develop an astral counterpart after a number of years. The shape of the real world sort of bleeds over into this one, but not completely. That's why your books are blank. They're not really your books. They're just the astral manifestation of them."
"Ah," Giles cut in. "We're in the Astral Plane. And that would explain Oz's unusual transformations."
"Huh?" Oz looked up from his packet of cold beef stew. "You talkin' about me?"
"Your transformations, Oz. In the real world you would be unable to control your change into the wolf-hybrid form. It would be dependent on the phases of the moon. But here, you would be much more in tune with the mystic forces that cause you to shift forms. Fascinating!"
"Oh. Okay. I was wondering about that." Oz returned to eating the meal packet.
"Now, how you got here I don't know," the stranger continued. "I mean, sometimes lost spirits wind up here but they don't stay long. Occasionaly a person's astral self will find its way here in dreams, but they usually either wake up, or something gets them."
"Like those monsters we ran into," Buffy interjected.
"Oh, you ran into some of the inhabitants of this quaint little town? You must not have ran into very many of them, otherwise you wouldn't be here. You were lucky."
"There were eight of them!"
"Like I said, you got off lucky. They usually travel in packs of twenty or more. The main pack is over a hundred strong, plus the leader."
"Oh," Buffy said quietly.
"Don't worry. As long as you killed them all, it shouldn't be a problem. They normally stay away from this place. Something about it being the Slayer main base of operations in the real world unnerves them.
"You seem to know a lot about us."
The armored man hesitated for a second. "It doesn't really matter now."
"We didn't kill them all," Oz spoke up. "Two of them got away."
"Yeah, and there were two more I couldn't get a bead on that turned tail about the same time," Xander supplied.
"Hmm." The knight thought for a moment then spoke. "That could be a problem."
Buffy didn't seem to think so.
"Our real worry here is getting home, not tangling with a bunch of demon dobermans. I would be more than willing to give this fight to them. I mean I have my Slayer pride but I left it at home this time. They can have this Sunnydale for all I care."
"Getting you home isn't a problem," the knight replied. "In the cemetary at dawn the boundary between the real world and this one will be weakest. I can easily open a portal there. My greatest concern now is those creatures. If they got away, than they will certainly be back in force."
The knight turned his back on the assembled group and walked a few steps away, deep in thought. Willow hugged Oz close to her in the silence that followed and Cordelia held on to Xander's arm. Buffy looked back at Giles in consternation. The worry was apparent in both their eyes.
"Alright," the knight spoke without turning around. "I'll cause a diversion, draw them away from this place. Meet me in the cemetary six hours from now. I'll get you home." With that he began to walk towards the entrance not bothering to look back.
Buffy called out to him, "How are you going to divert them?" Her words stopped him at the double doors and he turned back to face her. He answered in a quiet voice. "I'm going to kill all." With that he pushed through the doors and disappeared down the hall.
"That oughta get their attention," Xander commented.
"Can you believe the nerve of that guy?!" Buffy ranted to everyone after the knight had left.
"Yeah, I can't stand it when people offer to help me escape some weird shadow dimension! You'd think they'd just mind their own business! Geez!"
"Xander, it's not that! It's the fact that he just came in, all- all like high and mighty, like _he's_ all bad ass or something! I mean, can you believe the ego on that guy? 'I'm going to kill them all.' Like he's Arnold Swarzenegger or something! I mean he might as well have just said 'I'll be back!' I'm sorry, but I was decidedly unimpressed."
"Buffy," Giles looked at her. "If I didn't know better I would say you were jealous."
"Jealous?! Whoa, Giles! What bodily orifice are you pulling that out of?"
"Well, you must admit, the last time you ran into another heroic figure, you did exhibit the same signs of, um, hostility."
"Hey, Kendra was different. Besides we worked through that eventually. And who says this guy is a hero? I mean, what anybody can get dressed up like Lancelot and be a hero now?"
"Buffy, I have no doubt no doubt of that man. Anyone wearing that symbol is a, pardon the cliche, 'a good guy.' There are other forces on our side in the battle against evil. And do I believe you should begin dealing with these feelings of jealousy and insecurity."
"Yeah, either that or you're hot for him," Cordelia interjected.
Buffy shook her head as if she had been slapped. "Where did that come from?" she asked incredulously.
"I gotta admit, I'm anxious to hear this one, too," Xander smiled at Cordelia.
"Well, my therapist says that when you have strong emotions for someone, like you're always fighting with them or you hate them or something, sometimes that can be a subconcious mask for your attraction to them."
Xander was stunned.
"You-You've been seeing a shrink because we're dating?!"
"Kissing you really freaked me out! I thought I was going crazy, or I had a brain tumor or something like that. Besides," she turned back to Buffy, "you gotta admit, you do have kind of a history with mysterious strangers who help you out."
Buffy shook her head in disgust and turned away from her. "I'm not talking to you right now."
Giles tried to calm everyone down.
"Well, putting these things aside, we have some hours until its dawn back in our world, so I propose we make the best of it."
Giles looked around at them. Oz and Willow were dozing with their chairs near eachother, holding hands. Xander raised his eyebrows at Cordelia and they disappeared looking for a closet. Buffy plopped down in a chair and began to stare out towards the windows, her heavy breathing and set jaw clear signs of her continuing anger.
"Uh... yes, sleeping, making out, and sulking was exactly what I was going to recommend," Giles muttered to himself. A few moments later, a gunshot rang out through the school followed by Cordelia's disappointed voice.
"Oh, Xander. Couldn't you have waited?"
The hours passed by slowly. Xander and Cordelia had returned to the library and were cuddling on a couch somewhere in the stacks, and Giles had retired to his office to get some rest. Willow and Oz still dozed near the main table in their chairs. Buffy was watching out the windows carefully.
Staring out into the twilight shadow world she tried to discern some signs of movement. Though Giles had accepted the aid of their 'mysterious stranger' and seemed to trust him, Buffy still did not completely believe his story, or more appropriately, his lack of a story. So she kept a cautious watch out the windows for signs of the beasts they had met earlier.
From behind her, she began to hear Oz sniffing the air.
"*sniff* *sniff* Buffy," he warned her as she turned to him. Willow started to raise her head at the sound of his voice. "I think I smell something. *sniff* *sniff* Yeah, it's them. They're here."
At his words, Buffy sprang into action. She summoned everyone together and alerted them to the approaching creatures. Xander and Cordelia appeared flushed as they joined the group.
"Alright, Xander we're gonna need your firepower. You up to shooting some beasties?"
"Just tell me what to blow up."
"There's about twenty, maybe twenty-five of them," Oz informed them, still sniffing the air. Buffy was concerned.
"That's not good. It looks like your friend didn't do such a great job of 'diverting' them, Giles."
"I never said he was my friend but at least we are not facing a hundred of those things."
"Details, details. How much longer 'til we're suppossed to meet him at the cemetary?"
Giles looked down at his watch. "Um, a little less than an hour. But it will take probably twenty minutes or so to walk there."
"Well then, we've got a half hour to kill as many of those things as we can and then break out of here. Here's the plan. Xander, you take the windows. You see anything moving out there, feel free to shoot it or blow it up." Xander shook his head and grabbed his assault rifle. "Oz, you stay here with him in case anything gets through. Just freak out and do your wolf-man impersonation. I'm going to check out the halls. There's nothing to prevent them from getting into the builing and I want to keep them away from the library doors. I don't know how those doors always manage to keep out maurading monsters. I mean, they're like cardboard and they swing both ways. Anyway, just keep cool and be careful."
"Good luck, Buffy," Willow wished her as she moved to leave.
Xander took up his place near the windows, dragging a coffee table over to them so he would have a better firing position. Everyone else huddled together in the center, crowding around their protection, namely Oz.
"Does it strike anyone else as odd that I'm the shortest person here?" Oz innocently asked them.
Buffy prowled the halls, sticking close the library doors at all times. Farther down the hall, she could hear windows being shattered and the rustling of bodies. Some of them had made it into the building and would soon be coming for her. She hefted the shortsword that had not put down since drawing it from Giles bag in the mansion. It had served her well so far, and she was not optimistic about beating to death the hard shelled cat-like monsters with her bare hands.
From the library she thought she could hear the muffled sounds of suppressed gunfire.
'Xander must have found some targets prowling the grounds,' she thought to herself.
In front of her, the snout of one of the creatures sniffed around a corner then padded out into the hall way to face her. One of its huntmates followed it out and stood by its side. They both growled baring needle-like teeth. Their eyes glowed a faint green as they stared at her from down the hall.
"Come on, puppies," she whispered to them. "Come to Buffy. I'm gonna teach you to play dead."
Simultaneously they both charged her. She calmly stood her ground as they crossed the distance. Behind them, she could hear more of them coming into the building.
'Have to deal with these things quick so I don't get overwhelmed," she decided.
The two creatures leaped as one, much sooner than Buffy expected. She dodged to one side. As they sailed by her, she brought down the short blade on the neck of one of the passing beasts. Its partner landed on its feet and came back around to make another leap, but the one she had cut down landed with a thud, unmoving.
'I'm in a bad position," Buffy realized. 'The rest of these things are going to be coming down the hall behind me. Gotta finish this fast.'
The four-legged beast crouched low like a cat readying to pounce. Buffy readied her sword and charged forward as it leaped. She thrusted her blade out at the hurtling mass with the strength of her powerful legs behinds her. The monster impaled itself on her blade and began to thrash wildly about. She pushed the bucking and dying creature off her sword and turned back down the hall to face the rest of the approaching monsters. Five of them had followed the first two and were moving towards her with a deliberate slowness. They were obviously being more cautious in the wake of their comrade's deaths.
From outside Buffy heard the now familiar sound of Xander's grenade launcher. The ground shook slightly from the concussion. A growling demonic voice sounded loudly through the air from the exterior of the building.
"RETURN TO ME, MY MINIONS," the voice rang through the halls. The beasts stopped at the sound of the voice and began a slow retreat back the way they had come.
'I guess they've never had to face high-explosives before,' Buffy grinned triumphantly. She watched them leave the hall way, and waited until she heard them leave the building before falling back to the library.
When she opened the doors, Xander was standing near the windows, swearing and reloading the undermounted grenade launcher on his rifle.
"Xander, what's wrong? They retreated. That's what we wanted."
He turned to her after staring out the window and swearing some more.
"I only got three of them. They were running around so much I couldn't get a good shot at them. I must have wasted a whole clip trying to hit them. Only got one of them. So I thought I'd try the 'blow-them-up' approach. Only got two then. All I did was scare them off."
Cordelia crossed over to the irate young man and put her hand comfortingly on his arm.
"Its okay. I thought you looked very heroic shooting your gun, no matter how ineffectual it was."
"Yeah, Xand," Buffy added, without the faint patronizing manner of Cordelia. "Don't be so hard on yourself. I only killed two. You scared them off. That's something."
Willow was nervous.
"But for how long? There's still fifteen or twenty of them out there. It's only a matter of time before they come back."
Oz smiled at Willow and put his hand over hers reassuringly.
"That's my little ray of sunshine. Its what I like about you. You always see the bright side of things."
"No, she's right," Buffy remarked. "We're not out of the woods yet. Time, Giles?"
"We still have about forty-five minutes left until dawn."
Buffy took in the information and began to think of a plan. "Okay, we hurt them a little but next time they're going to-"
"SLAYER!!" the same demonic, growling voice called out again. "I HAVE COME FOR YOU!!"
Xander looked out the window, peering into the twilight darkness.
"_What_ was _that_?! I didn't know these things could talk!"
Buffy came up behind him to look for the source of the booming voice.
"What are you?" she called out the window to the voice. "Are you the leader of these things?"
"NO, BUT I SOON WILL BE" the voice answered them.
"Buffy," Xander whispered to her. "You see that big shape out there? Out by that tree?"
"Yeah," she whispered conspiratorily back.
"It's moving," he told her. "And its big."
"I AM ONE OF THE LEADER'S LEUITENANTS. IT WAS MY SCOUTS YOU RAN INTO AS YOU NEARED THIS PLACE. MY MASTER WOULD LIKE VERY MUCH TO FEAST ON YOUR BONES."
"So what," Buffy called back out to the voice. "You gonna drag me back to him like a good little lap dog? Huh?"
Xander readied his rifle and whispered to her again.
"Want me to try blowing him up?"
"NOTHING OF THE KIND! THE DRAGON IS CURRENTLY BATTLING THE LEADER AND HIS FORCES. THE LEADER MIGHT EVEN BE KILLED. IN THE VACUUM HIS DEATH WOULD CREATE, SOMEONE WHO KILLED THE SLAYER WOULD HAVE A STRONGER CHANCE OF ASCENDING TO THE POSITION OF PACK LEADER."
"Who's 'the Dragon?'" Buffy quietly asked Xander.
"Maybe he's talking about our mysterious armored friend," he replied as he took careful aim at the distant shadowy bulk.
"Got a shot?" she asked him.
"He's toast," Xander whispered back.
His finger tightened down on the grenade launcher's trigger. The large shadowy shape moved with blinding speed as the launcher fired. The explosive sailed towards its target, but the creature was already gone when the blast tore through the nearby tree.
"Good try, Xand," Buffy reassured him. "These things are fast."
Xander began loudly swearing again while he reloaded the launcher.
"YOU KNOW I HAVE ONLY TO SEND MY MINIONS AGAINST YOU IN FORCE. THEY MAY NOT KILL YOU, BUT YOUR FRIENDS WILL NOT BE SO LUCKY. YOU CAN SAVE THEM SLAYER! GIVE YOURSELF TO ME, AND I WILL ALLOW THEM TO LEAVE THIS PLACE UNHARMED. DEFY ME, AND THEIR DEATHS WILL BE ON YOUR HEAD. I WILL GIVE YOU A FEW MOMENTS TO THINK OVER MY OFFER."
Buffy looked out the window into the twilit grounds around the school again but could not find the source of the voice. The great shadowy shape had disappeared into the darkness.
"He's lying, Buffy," Giles told her as she turned back in thought. "They would kill us in a heartbeat."
"Not about everything," she looked up at him with a look of cold determination on her face. "It's only a matter of time before those things come in here and kill us all. He's said that he wants me, and I believe him." She took a deep breath before continuing. "So here's the plan. Xander and Oz, you guys have shown you can hold your own against these things. I'll lead most of them away while you guys make a run for the cemetary."
She was met with a resounding chorus of 'nos' from her friends.
"Look guys, we've run out of the options. We're outnumbered and running out of time. I've faced hopeless situations before. Hell, I've died. I don't plan on fighting them. After I've led them off, I'll double back and catch up with you."
"You are such a terrible liar," Giles chided her. "You have seen them move. You couldn't outrun them for long. And you would never lead them back to our trail. You'd let them run you down before you'd put us in danger. No, we are not going to go through with this-this inane plan of yours. Xander and Willow will agree with me." Willow nodded her support of him but Xander shook his head.
"Sorry, Giles, but she's right," he surprised them all. "Those things are going to bust in here anytime and use us for puppy-chow. We need to make a run for it, and we need Buffy to run interference." Willow's mouth was open in shock and Buffy was just as surprised.
"There's just one change to the plan," Xander continued. "I have to stay behind." Buffy began to shake her head and Cordelia became tight-lipped with anger, her eyes staring at him accusingly. He did his best to avoid her piercing gaze.
"No wait! Here me out. I'm not going to be able to hit anything while I'm running full tilt. I'd be useless there. If I stay here in the library, I can cover their whole line of escape with that sniper rifle I picked up. Those things will have to come out from cover to attack them, and I'll have a clear shot at them. I'll be like Daniel Day-Lewis in 'Last of the Mohicans...", except with a nightvision scope."
Buffy stared at him for a few moments then slowly nodded her head.
"Alright. You can stay. Thanks, Xander." She started to walk towards him, but Xander suddenly backed away, using his arms to ward her off.
"Oh no! I've seen you pull that trick on Giles before. You're not knocking me out! You need me, Buffy. _They_ need me. I'm staying!"
Buffy sighed and smiled wearily at him.
"You guys know all my tricks now. I gotta think up some new ones." She turned to the rest of her friends. "I'm not arguing with the rest of you. You're going! I'll make a short run out the back entrance and circle around so I end up back here in the library. We'll make our stand here. We won't have to worry about you guys getting hurt, so we can cut loose and kick ass. And Xander can shoot the library up with impunity, maybe even blow out a wall or two."
Xander smiled at her comment.
"You know, blowing up the school has always been a secret little wish of mine."
"You guys come with me," Buffy motioned towards them. "We'll plan your escape route. Xander, get your sniper thing with your laser-doo hickey ready. We go in two minutes. No! Not another word! Xander's got a gun so it makes it kinda hard to knock him out, but you guys don't have that luxury. I'm sure Oz could carry a couple of you unruly and, might I add, unconcious peoples."
"Oh, you want me to be the werewolf," Oz realized belatedly. He turned to Willow. "You know, I feel a little bit like Michael J. Fox. Everybody just wants 'the Wolf.'"
She looked at him perplexedly.
"'Teen Wolf' with Michael J. Fox," Xander supplied from across the room as he readied the sniper rifle. "It was one of those movies your parents wouldn't let you watch, Will." He looked over at Oz. "'Teen Wolf.' I got the reference.'
Buffy and Giles went off into the corner and began to have a heated discussion on the merits of her plan. Cordelia walked past Oz and Willow to Xander. As she approached, he could see the reproof in her gaze.
"I don't believe-!" She began but Xander cut her off.
"Dammit Cordy! This isn't about some infatuation! This is the best way I can protect you. I... Cordy I-I-oh screw it! I love you! I love you, Cordelia Chase. I know you're gonna give me a reason to regret saying that but... I do. And yeah, I care about Buffy, and that's something you're going to have to get used to! She's my friend and I'm not going to just leave her here alone to die."
Cordelia stared at him in shock and anger.
"Why'd you have to tell me that?! Why'd you have to say you love me?!" Her anger began to give way to tears. "You moron!" she cried as she threw her arms around him and buried her face in his shoulder. She sobbed there for a few moments before looking up into his eyes. "Don't you die, alright!" He put his arms around her and held her closely to him.
"Hey now, I'll be okay. Hey, this ain't the Titanic, and you're not Kate Winslet. This isn't good-bye."
"And you are certainly not Leonardo Dicaprio," she laughed though her tear streaked face. He smiled and cupped his hand to her face.
"Be careful out there," he warned her.
"_You_ be careful, Rambo. We've still got stuff to talk about."
They leaned their faces slowly towards eachother and shared a long passionate kiss. From the other end of the library, Buffy cleared her throat loudly and they broke off sheepishly. She squeezed his hand tightly as they parted and she joined the rest of the group for their escape.
"Time, Giles?" Buffy asked her Watcher.
"About forty minutes... Are you sure you won't consider this plan of yours?" Buffy raised her fist as if to strike him but he put up his hands in protest. "Alright, alright. You know other Slayer's didn't physically threaten their Watchers."
"They were probably just too ashamed to write it down," she responded. "Now, you guys know where you're going, what path to take out of here?" Oz and Giles nodded. "Good. Xander, you ready up there?"
"All set," came his reply from the windows.
"Just run like hell and don't look back. Move out." Buffy motioned everyone out the double doors until it was just her and Xander in the library. She turned back to him and opened her mouth as if to something then stopped. She turned as if to go when Xander's voice stopped her.
"Don't get any ideas about just keeping on running. If you don't come back, I'm coming out after you."
She stared at him then lowered her eyes.
"Thanks, Xander. You're a good friend. Thanks for everything... And don't worry. I'll be back." And with that, she walked out the doors to begin her part of the plan.
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