Willow’s face was long and tired, but she pressed on in her research. As she was about to end her search for the night, a page fell out of the ancient tome she was perusing. With a shaky hand, Willow picked it up and read it, her tired eyes sparkling as she realized what she had finally found.

Thank Goddess! But how in the world are they going to get home? They don’t even know what they need to do! I have to figure out a way to let them know…until then; I guess I have to wait them out.

Willow laid the paper down on the table she had been seated behind and walked to the small bed to rest. Her room was adjacent to Buffy and Spike’s hospital room, and she drifted off to sleep as she listened to the rhythmic beeps coming from their room. Xander entered the room, noticing Willow’s light was still on, holding a warm cup of tea for the overworked witch. Willow’s loud snore greeted him, and he smiled at his friend’s sleeping form before sitting down at her desk. He picked up the wrinkled piece of paper and gasped as he read the few words inscribed on it.

“Willow!”

Alternate Dimensions, Updated August 1985.

Recent occurrences within covens in the Council’s contact have forced an addition to be made to this ancient tome. Since the advent of moving pictures in the early 1900’s, our covens have noticed an increase in minds shifting into alternate dimensions, more specifically, the “dimensions” shown in the films themselves. This phenomenon was scarce before films, though, from time to time, subjects would be lost within the pages of a novel. The witches in the affected covens noticed a pattern of mental dimension shifts after the victims wished for an object out of the film, and, within hours of said wish, slipped into a comatose state. Victims who awoke from this state have said they were captured in the film, but because of their knowledge of the film, were able to complete the film’s pattern, with few errors, and escape.

Victims who did not wake from their comas are believed to have not completed the necessary tasks, and were lost forever in an uncharted area of the film. Once a victim is mentally sucked into the film, there is nothing to do but wait, for their mind and very existence in the real world, relies on their own actions.


Xander fell back against the chair, his hands covering his face.

“Oh God, Willow, what did you do?”

--

Giles sat on a cold, leather couch, staring blankly out of a window at London’s rainy streets. Dawn plopped down next to him, exhausted.

“I can’t find anything, Giles.”

“Neither can I.”

“I’m really worried about her…and about Spike. I…I can’t believe what he must’ve gone through…what he must’ve felt before….”

“Yes, yes, I know, Dawn. I still can’t believe that Spike is the only one that survived…even in the state he’s in. We must get him awake so we can figure out what happened. It was a great loss to our cause to lost Angel, no matter what the two of us may have thought of him.”

“I wonder what happened.”

“I doubt that we really want to know the brunt of the story, dear. Judging from Spike’s condition…well, it couldn’t have been pretty.”

Xander’s ragged breath cut through the silence in the living room where the Watcher and the Watcher-in-training sat.

“Willow…messed up…movies…Buffy…Spike….”

He held out the crumpled piece of paper to Giles, who quickly snatched it away. Too flustered to concentrate, he handed it to Dawn after attempting to focus on the words. Dawn read aloud as Giles cleaned his glasses meticulously. When she was done, she stood and paced the room, her eyes shifting between the flabbergasted Giles on the couch, and the distraught, and still heaving Xander propped up against the wall.

“So, what can we do? We can’t just…I can’t just wait to see if they can figure it out before they go completely veggie!”

Dawn frowned as she continued to pace the room.

Giles cleared his throat.

“Dawn, sit. You’re going to wear the carpet out. Xander, get off of my wall, and go get Willow. I have an idea, but I’ll need her help…and yours too, Dawn.”

Finally being needed perked Dawn up instantly, and her smile remained plastered on her face until Willow entered the room.

“What’s up, Giles,” the redhead asked, sleepily.

“I think I’ve found a way to contact Buffy and Spike in their ‘dimension,’ but I need some assistance.”

A hot burst of blood colored Willow’s face when she realized they had found the paper she was reading earlier.

“Oh…I…I was going to tell you guys, honest. Cross my heart and hope to….”

“Yes, yes,” Giles interrupted. “No time for that, dear. I need you to help Dawn open a portal to their ‘dimension.’ By the way…do you, uh, have any idea where exactly they might be?”

Willow blushed.

“In one of Buffy’s favorite movies….”

“Oooh, Rocky Horror? That’s so cool,” Xander offered.

“No,” Willow said, a lighter expression replacing her fearful one, “in Oz.”

Xander squinted his eye at Willow.

“Like, ‘grrrr’ werewolf land?”

Willow shook her head and patted Xander on the back.

“No. Oz. Munchkins? Flying monkeys? Cowardly lion?”

“Ohhh, yeah. I thought Buffy hated that movie, what with the munchkins and all,” Xander said with a chuckle.

Dawn smiled.

“She usually fast-forwards though their parts.”

Giles again cleared his throat.

“I’m sorry I asked. At any rate, Willow, if we can open a portal to that dimension, Dawn can tell them what they need to do. She is still ‘the Key’ after all, she just doesn’t have the control nor the power to will herself there.”

Willow nodded.

“Anything, Giles. It’s all my fault…I’ll do anything I can to save them.”

“Good,” Giles said, standing up with gusto. “Let’s go to work.”

--