Title: Going Back 7/8
Author: Gail Christison
Pairing: B/G
Rating: PG-15 for romantic stuff and mildy scary bits.
Summary: First of all, this is a sequel to a post Tabula Rasa fic I wrote a long while ago called "The Visitor,"
http://www.wickedsky.com/oncemore/omwf/fanfic_visitor.html in which Buffy goes to England to reconnect with Giles and to tell him something. They do indeed 'connect' and their relationship evolves into a ..well a relationship <g>. This sequel was written purely to explore the dynamics of that new relationship but it turned into an exploration of Giles' past, and an introduction to it for Buffy, as well as a mystery [not sure how that sneaked in there <g>] that needs to be solved.
Disclaimer: Mutant Enemy, Joss..yadda yadda
Distribution: If you want it, please just ask.I like to share <g> Anyone who already has permission...go for it :-)
Feedback: After the length of the birth of this thing? Oh, Ghhhod yesss :-) chriscln@iinet.net.au

Author's notes: Following on from the summary, I should explain that this story was started in 2002. Three pages sat for 12 months before being resumed in 2003 and a healthy chunk written, Emily and Gregor arriving with it :-). Annnnd yet I managed to get stuck again...I've still only just finished it. It was one of those kind of fics. More hiccups than a Saturday night drunk <vbg>

Thanks: At this point I have to thank some people. I'm pretty sure that Ruth and Karen checked out the Scottish accents for me a long time ago, and Gileswench has been great at keeping me going on this thing as well as providing early beta-ing and feedback on parts of it. I also have to thank Karesia for the final beta at short notice and amidst great adversity. It was profoundly appreciated. :-) With over 2 years to cover I'm sure I've forgotten someone who helped or who got shanhai-ed to provide a spot-beta along the way. Whoever you are, I love you...please don't shoot me :D

Dedication #1 Happy birthday, Kim and thanks, my friend

Dedication #2 For Dawn M. B/Gers like you keep me writing. :-)

"Something like that," Buffy said darkly. "I'd kick its ass...if...it had an ass. Giles, there must be some way we can stop it from doing whatever it is that it's doing....so everyone who's stuck here can...?"

"Buffy's right," Catriona agreed vehemently. "We must do something, anything, to stop it. If it's been around for so very long, there's no telling how many poor souls it has trapped here, on this plane, with no hope, no chance..."

"It's composed of energy," Giles pointed out. "And this isn't a Hollywood movie...we aren't likely to be able to short-circuit it, or confuse it to the point where it melts down or explodes, nor is it likely to turn out to be misunderstood and simply in need of sympathy and understanding," he added dryly.

Buffy's eyebrows were raised. "And you say you don't watch television. Captain Kirk would be proud. Me, I was thinking of something more along the lines of interrupting whatever holds it all together. Willow would already have a suggestion by now...something math-y or physical...I mean physic-ish...well, scientific anyway. Will's big with the science and the math."

It was Giles' turn for raised eyebrows. "It is possible that there may be some way to affect the cohesion of the creature..."

"Yeah...and make it explode into all its tiny little bits," she said brightly. "Just like those replicant thingies in Stargate...and I really wouldn't hate having Richard Dean Anderson building me a weapon to do that either...actually having my own Thor would be kinda neat, too..."

"Buffy," Giles interrupted.

"Yo?"

"Focus," he growled.

"Oh. Well, the replicant thingies that couldn't be killed went poof when Jack's big ol' blaster stopped their energy whassis from sticking together...seemed like a plan."

Giles dragged a hand over his face. "Would that Xander was here now to sort all that out and make something remotely resembling sense out of it," he muttered then looked stunned that he was actually wishing for *Xander* to bring order to chaos.

"Very funny," Buffy snarked, but it was obvious that she was not amused. "I'm not 'science girl' here...that's Willow...but can you, or can you *not* disrupt whatever holds an energy ball together...turn it into lots of little glow worms or Christmas lights, or something equally harmless...?"

"Yes, yes, just hang on a minute while I break out my disruptor beam," he retorted, patience wearing thin.

Buffy finally subsided. "I could call Will," she proposed.

"Yes, well, I'll keep researching. If you can find out anything useful from Willow, by all means."

"Catriona, we're just going to..." Giles turned and was visibly surprised to find her gone.

"Maybe she'll come back later," Buffy proposed, but Giles didn't answer, his expression bleak.

He left briefly, muttering something about bathrooms, and Buffy went straight to the phone. She'd already memorized the international dialling codes from calling Dawn, so it didn't take long to reach Willow's number. Unfortunately, it took a little longer to get from Earth to Willow, who'd obviously been roused from blissful unconsciousness.

"Oh, hey Buffy...how's ol' Blighty?" she finally mumbled.

Buffy looked perplexed for a moment. "Giles is fine. I just need you to loan me your Super-Brain long enough to be answer-girl in the solving of a major problem."

With a barely detectable chuckle at the other end of the phone, Willow yawned a prolonged yawn and said: "No problem."

"If I want to disrupt a concentrated source of energy, how do I go about it?"

"Um...you mean like a power station, or-or maybe a Taser gun?

Buffy frowned. "No, I mean like an ancient being who shed their body a long time ago and now they're just like a concentrated ball of energy...y'know?"

"Not really," Willow replied bemusedly. "But that's a hard one, Buffy. I-If I was there, I could probably do it with magick...but...."

"Really?" Buffy squeaked happily. "You think magick would work?"

"Sure, I can do it. Why not?"

Buffy frowned. "It seems kinda...big...you really sure you're ready for something like this?"

The silence at the other end of the phone was ominous. "You still don't think I can handle anything bigger than a pencil?" Willow finally asked, the muted anger in her voice unmistakeable, if noticeably tinged by echoes of guilt and very real doubt.

"Sure I do...think...you...can do stuff bigger than a pencil, that is...witness me, for example," Buffy pointed out, in a tone devoid of humour. I'm just worried about you, Will. It's a lot to ask, that's all. I could see if Giles knows anyone here..."

Buffy was answered by a dial tone. She frowned at the phone and then hung it up slowly.

A few moments later Giles returned. "Anything?" he asked as he started working down the rows of ancient text, looking for useful books to begin his search.

"Not so much," she said glumly. "Willow wanted to do a spell."

Giles blew out an irritated breath. "I will ask some friends of mine in Devon if such a thing is possible. Willow isn't...she doesn't..."

"Yeah, my sentiments exactly," Buffy agreed unhappily, saving him from further efforts to be diplomatic. "Will and the magicks..." She shrugged. "Mucho badness. I know it drove Tara away...not to mention Dawn's arm. And how can we forget the big Buffy encore...? Not exactly warm fluffies material, either." There was a pause as the rest of his statement sank in. "You know someone magick-y in Devon...wherever that is...someone who might know how to help Catriona?"

"There's a coven. I was seeing...um...I met them several months ago, when I first came back...they're good people and as a group...quite powerful. If anyone can help magickally, they can, but I wouldn't get my hopes up. Catriona's situation is..."

She sighed. "Yeah, I know...but we have to do something." Her eyes grew bright with sadness. "If Ballieri's right, there must be so many..."

Giles' expression mirrored hers. He nodded and picked up the phone.

*******

"I never want to have to do that again," Buffy said wearily as they prepared for bed after an evening of not telling Emily and Gregor what was going on.

Giles didn't look up from unbuttoning his shirt. "Nor I. It felt like we were lying to them...deceiving them."

"Well, we are, kinda. But what good would it do to tell them that Catriona's here, only they can't see her or hear her and hey, don't mind us, we're working on adios-ing her permanently before that's ever gonna happen...?" She sighed heavily.

His profile was so sad, so bleak, that Buffy wished she were as smart as he was...or at least Willow...so she could come up with something spectacular to make things better for everyone. Instead she moved to his side and sat down on the bed next to him.

"I know I'm not much help...but we're doing the right thing...you're doing the right thing. They wouldn't want Catriona to suffer, any more than you do." She reached up and gently smoothed feathers of greying hair around his ear, then caressed his cheek with the backs of her fingers. "It's going to work. The woman from Devon...if you believe in her, then so do I," she said softly.

His head dropped even further. "There's...there's something you should know," he said very quietly, making the hairs on Buffy's neck prickle.

She waited.

"D-do you remember when I told you that I met someone...?"

Buffy frowned, not expecting that, of all questions. It took a few moments, but the puzzlement in her eyes finally cleared. "Right after I came back...when you came back from England. You said you almost made a friend..."

"I may..." He cleared his throat. "I may have understated the situation slightly. Caroline was...we were..."

Buffy's eyes widened but her reply wasn't what he was expecting.

"You were seeing her," she guessed, then: "my coming back messed up your life *again*?"

He shook his head. "When I came back to England...after Willow's amnesia spell...we got back together for a time. If a relationship was meant to be it would have withstood all obstacles."

Buffy forbore asking what obstacles. "And Caroline is the wiccan coming here tomorrow?"

Giles nodded. "Caro's very powerful...the most gifted of an extremely gifted group. If it can be done, she can do it. Her power extends to the most elemental forces...it's quite extraordinary."

"So do I need to be jealous of wonder-wiccan?"

Giles laughed softly in spite of himself and turned to her, his eyes gentle with tenderness and love. "What do you think?" he asked.

After a long moment, Buffy smiled. "I think I want to snuggle with the man I love."

*******

Caroline was even more intimidating than Olivia wearing nothing but Giles' shirt. Buffy cast another sideways glance at the tall, willowy woman, all peace and serenity and 'olde worlde' smarts. She turned then, soft, russet hair shining like someone polished it, and beautiful eyes that couldn't decide if they were dark blue or dark green, making them even more attractive.

And on top of everything else, Caroline was nice. Buffy could tell, and it made her even more irritable. The woman was perfect for Giles...so perfect that he would probably have lived a happy and peaceful...a *long* life with her. Who knew how long she-Buffy- could give him before the ol' destiny reared its ugly head one too many times...

"Buffy?"

She jumped, realizing she'd been spoken to several times.

"Yo?" she finally managed, trying to look like she really was paying attention.

"Are we in agreement?"

"A-greement?"

Giles rolled his eyes. "Caroline has proposed that she do a summoning spell, since Catriona doesn't seem to know exactly how to call the creature. If it is brought forth, it will be up to you and I to occupy it until Caroline can do the spell to cast it into another dimension."

Buffy looked confused again. "I thought we were going to 'splode it, Lucy?"

Again Giles looked stern, but Buffy could tell he was trying not to laugh. He'd watched enough late-night television in the States after she started college to get the pop-culture reference immediately.

"Yes, well, I'm afraid there are no ''sploding' spells for this situation. Science fiction is full of wonderful concepts that remain solely the domain of human imagination."

"Wow...did all that just come out of your mouth?" she teased. "You sound like a documentary narrator."

Giles went stuffy librarian for a moment. "*Buffy!*" he growled.

Caroline cleared her throat, amused by the banter, but wanting to get on with the preparations.

"The Housekeeper and her husband...they've gone?"

Giles nodded. "I dropped them in town this morning. Emily is shopping and Gregor is getting a haircut."

"Good. They're better off as far away as possible. I want to give this thing as few weapons as I can to use against us. As soon as it realizes it's under attack, we lose our advantage. And from what you've said we have no way of knowing exactly how powerful it is. Though something that would indulge in the kind of petty spite you've described...not to mention something stuck here for this long without either searching out a solution or finding something better to do with its time... maybe isn't that powerful after all...or maybe just not that bright, if we're really lucky."

"Wow, pessimism and Pollyanna all in the same sentence...es," Buffy muttered under her breath, still disgruntled, and drawing a dirty look from Giles as they moved off to get started.

*******

Catriona was frightened, but she followed the older woman's instructions implicitly, sitting in the circle and repeating the incantation perfectly. At the precise moment both of them finished their chanting, the air came alive and the night sky rent in two, light seeming to pour into it from...nowhere.

Giles and Buffy watched with fascination as it formed into the intense nexus of white light that Catriona had described, managing through the flashing of almost metallic colours and pulsating its form, to look both ferocious and outraged. As one they moved forward to confront it while Caroline began the new spell.

Catriona appeared to be listening to it. Though none of the others could hear what it was saying, the overwhelming impression was of the light ranting and raging and Catriona fighting down fear to stare back at it, transfixed. Buffy wondered in passing whether or not their conversation was telepathic and decided it sounded way too migraine-making for her taste. Then, suddenly, idle thought was no longer possible.

The light had suddenly turned cobalt blue, with a blood coloured, throbbing centre, and it appeared to be enveloping Catriona.

Before Giles could say anything, Buffy had charged the other slayer, both of them flying out of the circle and out of the radius of the light. He only had time to marvel at the fact that Catriona seemed to be, or to have made herself corporeal, or at least solid enough for Buffy to tackle, within a split second of her decision to charge. Then light started after the pair, scrambling as they were, to get to their feet and move further away. He lunged after it.

Caroline's voice rose and strengthened as she reached the zenith of the incantation and the actual command to send the creature to the dimension she'd chosen.

Her voice stopped Giles within a hairsbreadth of plunging into the fiery mass of energy, reluctantly holding himself back as the spell took effect.

The creature fought hard, trying to get to Catriona, trying to resist the spell. Then suddenly it enveloped Caroline. After a short, tense silence, the wiccan repeated the incantation with astonishing power at least a half a dozen times before the entity finally let go.

It vanished, rather like brightly coloured dishwater spiralling down a sink, until finally only the tranquillity of the countryside remained.

"Whoa." Buffy moved to Giles' side. "That was some light show."

Caroline was pale and exhausted, but she seemed satisfied with the result. "It wasn't entirely malevolent. It wasn't even mature. It was an adolescent version of its species. Obnoxious and volatile, but not evil in the true sense. I changed the incantation to send it home."

Buffy wasn't convinced. "But all those spirits it trapped here?"

Caroline smiled. "I sent it home, in exchange for their freedom." She turned to Catriona. "Can you feel it?"

Catriona looked up, then smiled. "Yes!" she cried. "Like quicksilver rain and sunshine all at the same time...like ten thousand voices all raised in amazement...and unbridled joy..."

Giles' eyes filled with moisture as the dark haired beauty began to fade. "Goodbye, 'Iona," he said softly.

The vivid blue eyes leaped from one to another. "Thank you...thank you all...Oh! They're here! Thomas and Alice...even Gilber-," she said excitedly, and, before the last syllable was sounded, she was gone.

For a long moment Giles simply stared after her, almost as though trying to see what she saw. Then, finally, reluctantly perhaps, he turned to Caroline.

"How?" he asked.

"A trade," Caroline reiterated. "It was a frustrated adolescent. It leaped at the prospect of going home. Cost wasn't an issue. I told it what I wanted and it complied. I asked for their freedom first...all of them...every soul it had touched since it came here. To the creature it probably wasn't of much more import than a playground trade...marbles, toys...trading cards...human souls...it really had no concept of the harm it had been doing..."

"Captain Kirk *would* be proud," Buffy muttered in a voice low enough that only Giles heard, his attempt to abort his spontaneous chuckle turning into a choking cough. "Tea time," she announced, to deflect attention from Giles, who really had got himself into bother, turning dark red as he continued to hack away. "We don't have to pick up Emily and Gregor for at least another couple of hours, and I know where all the cooki... biscuits... and cake are hidden. Not to mention Emily was working on oat cakes and pikelets this morning... whatever they are. I know it's something good because Gregor was positively gleeful."

Giles, more or less recovered, finally smiled. "Oh yes, better than good. Both of you are in for a treat."

*******

"...And none of you could remember anything?"

Giles picked up a tiny buttered pancake and added blackberry jam and clotted cream before popping it into his mouth.

"No...and mistaking a sodding vampire for my son, particularly given that that vampire was only a few years younger than I when he was turned, was more than a little humiliating," he snorted.

"And I suppose snogging Anya was party time?" Buffy snorted back.

Giles coloured again. "That was below the belt and where did you pick up 'snogging' anyway? Besides, you know none of us could remember anything, *Joan*. We simply interpreted the empirical evidence..."

"Entirely incorrectly," Buffy finished, deliberately ignoring the reference to her amnesiac persona. "Just like the rest of us. The whole gig was *so* weird. I was vibing on Spike almost exactly the same as when Willow's 'do my will' spell went kablooey and Spike and I stopped trying to kill each other for five minutes, and wanted to get married instead. What's up with that, anyway?"

Caroline was looking more and more concerned. "Rupert, perhaps you should consider sending your young friend to the coven for a short while..."

"Perhaps I should, at that," Giles agreed ruefully. "But I'm afraid it's been some time since Willow would listen to anyone, much less me. I take full responsibility for not seeing this coming sooner, of course."

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