Tuesday
The following day was mostly a haze for Giles. The letter and its mysterious deliveryman weighed heavily on his mind. Even by the standards one got use to living on top of a Hellmouth, the contents of the letter were inconceivable. By all rights such a letter should not exist, much less be tucked into his coat pocket. The entrance of Buffy and her friends broke his contemplation of the impossible. He had completely lost track of time. School had ended for the day and Buffy had arrived for their daily training session. While pleased that she was being responsible, he needed to get her out of the library.
"Well here I am, ready to sacrifice my free time for the betterment of humanity." She said
"Ah yes." He replied thinking quickly. "..And I assume your homework is done?" He knew it was weak, but this sort of improvisation was never his strong suit.
"Homework?" She asked.
"Yes, I assume you are caught up." He said, hoping to keep her off balance.
"Well not exactly..." She began.
"Really? Well as important as your continual training is, you do need to keep your grades up as well."
"Wait a minute." Chimed in Xander. "Your telling us that Buffy's GPA is as important as keeping the world safe from the legions of the Damned?"
"Yeah, isn't that a little disproportionate?" added Willow.
"I'm not saying that they have equal gravity. I'm simply saying that since Buffy has been so dilligent in her training that I don't see the harm in taking a break to attend to her studies." the Watcher said, hoping he was not behaving totally out of character.
"A night off? Your serious?" Buffy asked, not sure she could believe what she was hearing.
"Yes, this once. But I do expect you to be prompt tomorrow."
"Sure, okay." The Slayer said, deciding not to question him, just in case he changed his mind. "Come on guys, lets hit the books instead of the bags."
As soon as they left Giles let out a sigh of relief. Now all he had to do was not lose his mind until the strange man showed up.
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Shortly after sunset Giles became aware that he was not alone.
"Hello? He called out.
"Hi." Said Angel, stepping out from the shadows.
"Angel, what are you doing here?" Inquired Giles.
"I got a very bizarre invitation to meet here tonight."
"You too?"
"Yeah, and he said I couldn't tell anyone but you."
"Did he give you anything?" Asked Giles.
"Uh huh. A letter, and a sound beating."
"A beating? he fought you?"
"I wouldn't call it a fight. For it to be a fight I would have had to get a shot in. How about you?"
Just a letter in my case." the Watcher paused for a moment. "Did he strike you as somehow familiar, like you had met him before, but you couldn't tell where?"
The vampire thought about it for a moment.
"Now that you mention it he did, but that's not an uncommon sensation for someone my age."
Before the two of them could continue, the doors to the library opened and the source of their speculation walked through. He walked straight up to the two.
"I'm glad you both decided to show up." Was his greeting.
"What the hell is going on? Angel snarled, taking a step towards him. He then paused, remembering his last encounter with this man. "Where did you get that letter you gave me?"
"What exactly did the letter say?"
"You know damn well what it said." The vampire countered.
"Actually I don't. It was given to me sealed." Alex said flatly.
This took both vampire and watcher by surprise.
"Given by whom?" asked Giles.
"You first." Alex said. "What did you letter say?"
Giles took a seat and pulled the letter out of his coat. "It says that I am to listen to what you tell me. It than goes on to give details on an incident from my youth that I've never told anyone about. Its in my handwriting and has my signature."
"How about you?" Alex asked the Vampire.
"The same. It told me to listen to you, and told of something that happened before I became a vampire. My writing, my signature . Now you, who gave them to you?"
"You did. Both of you."
"But how is that possible?" Asked Giles "We've never met you before. And I for one would remember writing such a letter."
"You don't remember writing them because you haven't done it yet."
Angel let out a grunt of frustration.
"Would you start making sense. Who in the hell are you?" He said.
Both Angel and Alex stared in each other's eyes for a moment.
"That's both very simple and very complicated. My name is Alexander Harris."
Both Angel and Giles were struck silent for several moments staring into his face before Giles finally found his voice again.
"Xander?"
"Please Giles, I haven't gone by that name for years. It's Alex now." Angel took a seat next to Giles. Now that he knew what to look for it became clear, but the differences were glaring. He was about early to mid thirties now. His face was fuller, not with fat, but in the way that comes with bulking up from working out. The same was true of his build. His beard removed the boyish quality from his face. But most of all was his expression and body language. The Xander he knew always seemed so animated, even when he was standing still. This man's body language suggested more of a coiled spring, not moving but gave the impression that it could at any moment. His eyes were the most telling of all. Xander's eyes were bright and full of life, this man's seemed dead, like they had seen more pain then they knew what to do with.
"How is this possible?" Asked Giles.
"Have you ever heard of Teferi?" Alex responded.
"No. Should I have? " Was the watchers answer.
"He was an African witch-doctor about 300 years ago. He claimed to have discovered the secret of as he put it 'time walking'. And as you can see he was right."
"So you discovered his secret and used it to come back in time." Angel stated. "But why?"
Alex paused and took a seat himself. After taking several deep breaths he looked at the other tow.
"I'm here to try to avert a tragedy." He took another breath and let it out slowly before continuing. "Unless we find and destroy Spike by Sunday, Buffy and Willow will die." _________________________________________________