A Quantum Leap - New Fic

TITLE: A Quantum Leap

AUTHOR: Methos (ianblyth2005@btinternet.com)

DISTRIBUTION: If ya want to host it somewhere else just tell me where ya putting it ok?

DISCLAIMER: All things BtVS belong to Joss Whedon, Quantum Leap and all characters mentioned belong to Donald P Bellisario, Methos, Joe and all things Highlander belong to Davis-Panzer productions.

SUMMARY: After Mirror Image, Sam is stuck in time, could Al and a group of new people brought to the project find him and bring him home? Maybe they could, but an accident at the project causes another problem for the people at PQL, one that might have someone leaping a lot longer than Sam’s years...

FEEDBACK: Love it Either here or to my email addresses.

RELATIONSHIPS: Nope

RATING: FR18

SPOILERS: End of Quantum Leap, End of Buffy, Highlander Endgame, Highlander 1 and all of the series.


“Where would you like to go, Sam?” The bartender asked, looking down at Sam with a sad smile

“I’d like to go home, but I can’t, can I? I’ve got a wrong to put right for Al.” Smiling up at the bartender, Sam allowed a brief moment of clarity to pass through him. “You knew that, didn’t you?”

The bartender just smiled at him and squeezed his shoulder softly. “God bless, Sam.”

As the world changed around him for the last time, Sam allowed himself to focus on his last target... Beth...




“ZIGGY!” Al screamed at the globe hanging in the middle of the room, he knew he didn’t have to shout at that specific object, Ziggy would be able to hear him and reply no matter where he was in the complex.

“I hear you Admiral, you don’t have to shout.” Ziggy’s smooth feminine voice seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere in the complex as it replied to Al.

“Well? Where is he? When is he? Damn it Ziggy, he can’t have just leapt into nowhere.” Al slammed the now useless handlink down on the desk, punctuating his annoyance.

“Given Dr Becket's last leap, he could have well just leaped into nowhere. We are now in uncharted territory Admiral, his last leap did not require anyone to be in the waiting room, so it is entirely possible that he has not leapt into anyone, rather he has leapt into himself again.” Ziggy’s voice was always soothing, even when her ego was trying to convey annoyance at the situation.

“Sammy-Jo, is there any way we can locate Doctor Becket?” Al took a deep breath, forcing himself to stay calm; it wouldn’t do any good yelling at the other staff in the area.

“Not that I can think off, we were in the middle of doing some recruitment for the new project on level sixteen, trying to get ORACLE working. I think we’ve got some people in these folders who might be able to help, maybe they could even help Dr Becket.” Sammy-Jo handed the two manila folders over to Al, watching his face closely as he chewed around the cigar and flicked through them slowly.

“Ok, this Miss Rosenberg. You think she can help with the project? And this Dr Pierson, what’s his specialty?” Al finally asked, after staring at the pictures of Willow Rosenberg and Adam Pierson for a few minutes.

“Miss Rosenberg has just relocated to Cleveland after a disaster in her home town. She was in the top 2% for her intelligence,” She watched as Al’s eyebrow raised and anticipated the question. “No, not for her class, for the country in a whole.” Sammie-Jo tried desperately not to grin as Al’s eyebrows reached a whole new level. “She’s never been tested, but her IQ maybe on par with Dr Beckets.”

Al just let out a slow whistle; maybe she could help them retrieve Sam. Even if she couldn’t, she’d be a valuable asset to the program. “And Dr Pierson, what’s his speciality?”

“He’s one of the foremost experts in cultural anthropology and history in the world, but the amazing thing is, he never writes papers or lectures. He doesn’t want the fame of it, or that’s how it seems. When Dr Becket was loading Ziggy with historical data from the archives, we referenced Dr Pierson’s work for nearly every decade.”

Al whistled again, to use someone’s work for one decade showed they were good, to load Ziggy with information for ALL the historical data they were using... that showed the guy was really good.

“I believe bringing him in to work with Oracle maybe of great use to us, maybe we could even get him to update Ziggy with some of his more recent works.” Sammy-Jo paused for a second in thought before she continued. “Either way, he’d be a real help to us.”

“I agree.” Al nodded, flicking through his folder again. “Ok, I’ll go and approach these two, Miss Rosenberg’s in Cleveland and Dr Pierson’s in...” Al Paused as he flicked through the folder again. “Seacouver... Seacouver?” Al grinned; he’d get to catch up with his old CO there. He hadn’t spoken to Joe in years; it’d be nice to finally be able to talk with him again.

“Ziggy?” Al asked, now in a much more hopeful tone of voice.

“Yes Admiral?” Ziggy’s voice replied, her soothing tone filling the control room again.

“Continue monitoring the leap from here and have the jet fuelled are ready, I’ll get in the dress uniform and be ready to fly out in fifteen.” Al walked towards the door as he was speaking, letting the door slowly hiss open before he walked out of it. “I hope you’re right Sammy, for your fathers’ sake” He whispered under his breath as he walked to his quarters.




“I’m not here to harm you, Beth. I’m here to help you. To help you, and help Al.” Sam said in a low voice, trying to calm Beth down.

“Al.” Beth paused for a second, now really looking at the man in front of her. “You’re a friend of Al’s?

“Yes. I’m a friend of Al’s.” Sam smiled as he watched Beth relax a bit. “Could we sit?”

Sam just stood there for a moment as he watched Beth slowly sit on the couch. “I’m going to tell you a story. A story with a happy ending, but only if you believe me.”

“And if I don’t?” Beth countered, almost sarcastically.

“You will. I swear you will.” Sam smiled, watching her uncertainty wash away with a smile. “Instead of ‘Once upon a time,’ let’s start with the happy ending. Al’s alive and coming home.”

Beth went silent for a few seconds after allowing Sam to finish, finally the words catch up with her and for the first time in weeks she allows a small smile to appear on her face before tears start welling up in her eyes as the thought of seeing Al again. “Really?”

Sam smiled as he moved over to sit beside her. “Really, he’s coming home.”

Beth slid over to him and hugged his chest with all her strength, allowing his tears to run down her face and stain his shirt.

Without warning the familiar feeling of leaping came over Sam again. “I’ll see you soon Beth.” He smiled down at her as she let go of him, looking up at him with confusion, and then shock as the blue electricity passes through his body and he leaped.

“Al!” Both exclaimed, letting her hand reach up and touch her lips.


“ZIGGY!” Al shouted again as he continued running back through the corridors towards the main control room, “What happened?”

“I recorded a major change in your life history Admiral. It had no discernable effect on the project itself, though you’re life history from April 1, 1969 to the present day has been significantly altered.” Ziggy reported.

“What changes? Did Sam make them or was it Alia or Zoe or whoever?” Al asked as he slammed his fist onto the desk again.

“Unknown Admiral, though due to the nature of the changes I can predict with ninety eight percent accuracy that is was Doctor Becket that made the changes.”

“What were the changes Ziggy? My memory hasn’t changed, but I know something’s different, I can feel it damnit.” Al stabbed his cigar into the air, punctuating his phrasing.

“What’s wrong honey?” Beth asked, strolling into the command centre.

“I believe the changes to the timeline have just become apparent Admiral.” Ziggy said, her voice full of humour.

“Beth?” Al said, dropping his cigar in shock. “Beth, are you really here?”

“Al, what’s wrong?” Beth asked as she crossed the control room to hug him. “Is something wrong with Sam?”

“We have lost contact with Doctor Becket again Miss Calavicci; Doctor Fuller has suggested two people that maybe able to help us retrieve him. Admiral Calavicci was about to board the jet and locate these people, if you continue to do so Admiral, I will brief you on any changes to the timeline while you are in transit.” Ziggy forcefully suggested.

Al just nodded dumbly, he knew the rules, no time changes were to be discussed with the people whose life had been changed. It was one of Ziggy’s major rules, one he now understood.

“I’ve got to go.” Al said softly to Beth, not quite believing what Sam had done.

“I know. If these people can help, bring them here and help get Sam back.” Beth leaned in and kissed Al on the cheek. “And I’ll be here when you get back.” With that, Beth strolled out of the control room as if it was an everyday occurrence for her.

“Ziggy.” Al growled as he walked out of the other exit towards the hanger bay.

“You and Beth Calavicci have been married now for thirty five years. You have three children and a dog named Weitzman. I believe Sam has somehow altered time for both you and Beth, the start of this timeline was...”

“April 1, 1969” Al cut in, he knew when history had been changed, he just didn’t know how. “Is the jet fuelled and ready?”

“Yes Admiral, it is prepared for takeoff as soon as you arrive.”

“Good, tell the pilot I’ll be there in five.” Al said as he opened the door to his quarters and pausing for a second to take in the sight. Everything had changed, what was once a modern bachelor’s room was now a home for two, with leather chairs and paintings on the wall. “This is going to take some getting used to.” Al muttered as he laid his cigar in the ash tray and pulled out his dress uniform. “I’ll get you home buddy, I swear it.”





“You sure this is the place Ziggy?” Al spoke into the watch, knowing full well he didn’t have to, but it felt better to him. Speaking into nothing always made him feel a little crazy, if it was a watch or an ear piece or something, it just made him feel better about it.

“Yes, this is where Miss Rosenberg teaches computer science, physics and advanced mathematics. We don’t have any record of her acquiring a teaching degree but she is recorded is being employed by a company called the Watchers Council.”

“Interesting... Thank you Ziggy.” Al smiled, filing that titbit of information away for use at a later date. Walking up to the door he knocked twice, almost jumping at the loud sound that came from the door.

“Yes?” A blonde head appeared at the window by the side of the door.

“I’m here to speak with Miss Rosenberg, she should be expecting me.” Al smiled and did his best to appear friendly and open.

“Admiral Calavicci?” The blonde replied, looking him up and down.

“That’s me.” Al grinned with a puff of his cigar.

“If you put that out...” she let the sentence trail off as she watched him drop the cigar on the floor and grind it under his boot before opening the door. “She’s upstairs, in class at the moment but you’re welcome to wait for her in her office.”

“Thanks, uh...” Al smiled softly as he held his hand out to her.

“Buffy” the blonde replied, shaking his hand softly.

“Al.” Al smiled softly at the same, not wanting to get on anyone’s bad side while he was here to recruit someone.

“Well, Al. She’s upstairs, I can show you to her office if you want.” Buffy grinned; he was a lot nicer than their research had shown, maybe a little older than she had thought.

“Thanks.” Al smiled and softly played with his wedding ring with his thumb, pulling it round his finger in circles. “So, do you work here?” he asked as he motioned for her to take the lead.

“Yeah, Gym and Art.” Buffy grinned at the lie that came off her lips smoothly.

“Must be interesting.” Al had to forcefully stop himself from laughing as he tried to make Smalltalk as they walked up the stairs.

“Why don’t we quit the Smalltalk, I’m no good at it and neither are you from the look of things.” Buffy grinned as she stopped mid step and faced him. “Why are you here?”

“Fair enough, though I thought I was doing quite well.” Al grinned looking at her, for some reason she had dropped into a standard Tang So Do fighting stance while facing him, another interesting fact to file away about this place. “I’m here to ask Miss Rosenberg to come and work for us, we need her help.”

“Help with what?” Buffy asked suspiciously, not dropping from her fighting stance.

“I’m afraid I can’t tell you that.” Al said smoothly, while watching her tense from his words.

“May I interject here Admiral?” Ziggy said from the wristlink.

“Who said that?” Buffy shouted, whirling around and raiding her fists ready to attack.

“I did Miss Summers.” Ziggy continued with a humours sound to her voice.

“Uh, you know you’re watch is talking to you right?” Buffy said, with a puzzled look on her face.

“What is it Ziggy?” Al asked, rolling his eyes at the comment.

“Buffy Summers has complete clearance to hear everything about the project Admiral. As does Doctor Giles, Willow Rosenberg, and one Alexander Harris. Their records we’re sent over once the oversight committee heard about us wanting to recruit one of their members.” Ziggy explained.

“Ziggy? Weird name.” Buffy grinned, “And what clearance? What Project? You’d better not be anything to do with the Initiative.” Buffy growled the last word out.

“What’s the Initiative?” Al asked, letting himself get sidetracked from the main question.

“If you don’t know then I can’t tell you.” Buffy grinned, happy now from the look on his face and his actions that he was nothing to do with it. “Now, about this project and our clearance...”

“As I said Admiral, Buffy Summers has complete clearance to know everything about the project. Her clearance level is nearly as high as yours and Doctor Beckets, though she does not have the same UMBRA level clearance. Hers comes from Project Lilac.” Ziggy explained, drawing puzzled expressions from both Al and Buffy.

“Ok, so you have clearance, can I ask where you got it from?” Al asked, now intrigued at the puzzle before him. How does a twenty something year old girl get that high level clearance?

“You’re guess is as good as mine Admiral, first I’ve heard of it. So who’s Ziggy? You’re assistant?” Buffy asked, nodding at the wristlink.

“Ziggy’s a computer, she runs the project we want to recruit Miss Rosenberg for, and please, call me Al.”

“Al, so you’re working for a top secret project with a computer in charge?” Buffy grinned at the thought, sounds like something Willow would jump at the chance to work with.

“Not really, Ziggy is a Parallel Hybrid computer with an AIQ exceeding 2956.” Al explained.

“AIQ?” Buffy asked, the puzzled look now back on her face.

“Artificial Intelligence Quota.” Al explained.

Buffy just whistled. “She’s intelligent and alive?”

“I am Miss Summers, and I am perfectly capable of explaining my own existence thank you Admiral. I can probably explain the details of Quanta and Artificial Intelligence programming to a higher degree than you.” Ziggy said from the wristlink, a smug sound on her voice.

“Yeah, yeah, me dumb you smart.” Al said with a grin causing Buffy to start giggling again.

“Ok, so not what I was expecting from an Admiral.” Buffy said once her giggles had died down.

“Glad I could amuse you,” Al smiled. “Now can we go and see Miss Rosenberg, I’d rather not have to explain the project twice, it gives me a head ache trying to explain it once to people.”

“Fair enough, she should have finished class now. I still can’t believe you’re working for a computer, no matter how smart it is.”

“Don’t let her hear you say that, she’s got a big enough ego as it is.” Al grinned as they reached the top of the stairs.

“She? You made the most intelligent computer on earth a woman?” Buffy could hardly keep the amusement out of her voice. “That makes me feel much better.” Buffy grinned as she opened a door labelled simply ‘Willow’

“Well women are the...”

Al cut Ziggy of by quickly pressing the mute button on the wristlink, causing electronic chirps and squeals to come from the link and giggling to come from Buffy again.

“Buffy, hi.” Willow said from her chair. “And you must be Admiral Calavicci.” She smiled as she stood up to shake his hand.

“Miss Rosenberg.” Al clarified with a nod as he shook her hand. “Please, call me Al.”

“Willow then.” Willow smiled looking carefully at Buffy who was doing her best not to erupt in giggles again. “What’s wrong Buffy? You’re not normally like this around army people.”

“Navy,” Al said before Buffy could reply.

“Navy, slight improvement there.” Willow grinned.

“You won’t believe me if I tell you Willow, I’ll just let Al make the introductions.” Buffy grinned and slumped down in a leather chair to watch the madness.

Willow just raised her eyebrow. Something that had Buffy in giggle fits that she wouldn’t believe? To say her curiosity was piqued would be an understatement.

“Firstly, I have one question. Have you ever heard of a scientist by the name of Sam Becket?” Al asked, sitting down in a chair next to Buffy and taking off his hat.

“Yeah, he was on the cover of time in the late nineties, they even called him the next Einstein. I referenced some of his work during my thesis on Nanotechnology along with Dr Samantha Carter. His work on quantum physics was amazing, I couldn’t stop reading it.” Willow babbled excitedly.

“Ok,” Al grinned, this made is a lot easier. “Did you read his work on theoretical quantum probability shift travel?” Al asked, almost disappointed when she shook her head.

“No, I wanted to, but by the time I had made my request to the University for the Paper, they wouldn’t pass the paper on to a high school student.” Willow said, a bit bitterly.

“Wait, you read his work in High School? And understood it?” Al asked, bemused when she nodded.

“Willows a little genius, she’s working on something with Nanotechnology now that’s so far over my head...” Buffy trailed off when Willow started blushing.

“I’m getting the picture. To put it bluntly we would like for you to come and work for us Miss Rosenberg” Al said, confident that she would say yes when she heard what she’d be working on.

“What does this have to do with Doctor Becket?” Willow asked a bit hesitantly.

“You’ll be working on a project of Doctor Becket’s, named Project Quantum Leap.” Al continued.

“And get this; we already have clearance to hear the whole thing, so no waiting.” Buffy grinned.

“How did we get clearance?” Willow asked, now looking at Buffy intently.

“Dunno, something to do with the Initiative I guess.” Buffy said with a dismissive wave of her hand.

“Ok, so what is the project about and who’s running it?” Willow asked, frowning when Buffy erupted in giggles again.

“Buffy, why don’t you show me around the grounds while Willow has a talk with Ziggy?” Al grinned as he undid the wristlink and placed it on the desk.

“Sounds good to me, too much sciency talk for me anyway. Let the two nerds hack it out while I show you around.” Buffy grinned at the wristlink on the desk while Al turned it back on.

“Buffy, what’s going on? Who’s Ziggy?” Willow asked, now eying the Wristlink carefully.

“Pleasure to meet you Miss Rosenberg, I am Ziggy. Admiral, one last thing before you go you have been authorized to bring in Willow Rosenberg, Buffy Summers and Doctor Giles to work on the project so if you would like to speak to them while I speak to Miss Rosenberg.” Ziggy said.

“Will do Ziggy, thanks.” Al smiled at the wristlink watching Willows puzzled expression.

“Enjoy Willow, we’ll be back soon.” Buffy grinned as she opened the door.

“So, what’s this project and why do you want to recruit me and Giles?” Buffy said, now wanting to know more about this project.

“Shall we go and meet Doctor Giles and I’ll explain it then? Won’t be as scientific as Ziggy’s explanation but I’ll do my best.” Al said with a smile.

“Sounds good to me, too much science talk gives me a headache anyway. This way,” Buffy grinned as she led the way to Giles’ office. “So, you don’t have a problem with strong women?” Buffy burst out laughing at Al’s expression as she opened the door to Giles office.

“Buffy, Admiral.” Giles said, standing up from his desk and holding out his hand.

“Doctor Giles.” Al smiled and reached his hand out to shake the offered hand.

“Can I assume that you’re meeting with Miss Rosenberg is over then?” Giles said sitting back down.

“Nope, they’re still in the meeting, this one’s just for us.” Buffy grinned, thinking about what Willow and Ziggy must be talking about.

“I see... may I ask who Willow is having the meeting with then? I was led to believe it was with you Admiral.” Giles said with a puzzled look on his face, he was sure he had only seen the Admiral come in; there wasn’t anyone else with him when he entered Willow’s office.

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you Giles, trust me.” Buffy grinned sitting down and motioning for Al to do that same. “Seems the offer isn’t just for Willow, it’s for me and you as well.” Buffy grinned as Giles started cleaning his glasses.

“I see, so what are you here to offer us Admiral Calavicci?” Giles asked as he carefully closed some books on his desk and placed them to the side for later filing.

“We’d like for you three to come and work with us on a top secret project named Quantum Leap.” Al said, wishing now he had a cigar. The man in front of him had quite an intimidating presence for his age; he now wished he had Ziggy with him so he could ask her for some background information on this Doctor Giles.

“And what does this project deal in?” Giles asked sceptically.

“Time Travel.” Al said simply, watching the dumbfounded look on both Doctor Giles and Buffy’s face.

“You can’t be serious, it’s impossible.” Giles said.

“Not only is it possible, but it’s already happened. Doctor Sam Becket first travelled back in time in June nineteen ninety eight, he ‘leapt’ back to nineteen fifty six and has been bouncing around in time ever since.” Al said, now watching their faces come round to acceptance.

“So that’s why he hasn’t published anything, I keep looking for new publications from Doctor Becket at Willow’s behest but haven’t been able to find anything.” Giles said, now a bit worried about everything that this meant for the world in general. “So, what do you want us to come and work for you for? You’ve proven time travel, what do you need us for?”

“Getting him back home.” Al said simply. “Look, I don’t know what you’re specialities are, I was only told five minutes ago to bring you in on it so to speak. I was only here to recruit Willow, Ziggy then told me to recruit you two as well.”

“Ziggy, the person in the meeting with Willow?” Giles asked, watching carefully as Al nodded.

“So you want us to leave our homes, our responsibilities and come and work for you on a project to retrieve Doctor Becket from somewhere... sorry, somewhen in time. Am I getting this right?” Giles said, almost disbelieving what he was saying.

“Sign me up, I don’t know what I can do, but I’m there. Ziggy sounds like so much fun.” Buffy grinned at the thought.

“Buffy, are you sure? I mean, what about you’re... responsibilities?” Giles asked, now polishing his glasses again and reaching for the liquor cabinet behind him.

“Faith and the newbie’s can take care of Cleveland, now that Sunnydale’s gone the threat has dropped to nothing. Do you know how long it’s been since I had a good fight? Maybe these guys can offer me one... ohhh, do you have marines there?” Buffy asked, now picturing working in a gym with a load of topless marines going through their drills.

“Uh, yeah, we have marines.” Al said, now a bit confused.

“Admiral, would you care for a drink?” Giles asked, pouring himself a large whisky and draining it in one smooth motion.

“Thank you.” Al nodded and smiled, “Please call me Al.”

“Rupert then, or Giles as everyone seems to prefer.” Giles said with a smile as he passed over the drink and pushed an ash tray in front of him.

“You don’t smoke Giles, what’s with the ash tray?” Buffy asked, almost shocked that Giles would smoke.

“No, I don’t smoke, but a few of the new girls do, as well as Faith. I found it easier to allow them to smoke in here rather than interrupting the meetings every half hour so they can have a smoke.” Giles smiled as Al pulled out a cigar and lit it from a match.

“A pure Cuban, you have fine tastes Admiral.” Giles said, noting the cigar.

“Would you care for one?” Al asked, pulling anther out of his pocket and holding it out.

“No, thank you. It’s been too long since I have indulged in that habit, though I may take you up on one when we move in.” Giles smiled as what he said dawned on Buffy.

“You mean...” Buffy started to say.

“Yes, I don’t know how we can help, but if there is any way we can help to save a man lost in time, I feel it would be a criminal act to deny that help. We will be honoured to offer our services Admiral.”

“What about Dawn, and Xander?” Buffy said, now realizing that she would be moving to god knows where.

“Dawn is quite happy at Cambridge University in England; I will of course notify her of our change in location once we learn of it. Xander is quite happy with his Bar; I’m sure he wouldn’t want to move from it and he can keep an eye on the girls here for us and let us know if we are needed, though I shouldn’t imagine that would be the case.” Giles smiled, taking a sip of his whisky. “I have a few things to take care of though, so if Buffy and Willow would like to go on ahead I will join you when I have finished taking care of my obligations.”

“Thank you Doctor Giles, please call this number when you are ready and we will send a jet to bring you to the project complex.” Al smiled as wrote down the project telephone number and handed it to Giles.

“So, think the nerds will have finished yet?” Buffy asked with a grin.

“Nope, but let’s go and see.” Al grinned back and moved to the door. “I look forward to seeing you again Doctor Giles, it’s been a pleasure.” Al smiled and closed the door as Buffy walked out of it.

“So, where we moving to?” Buffy asked as they walked back towards Willow’s office.

“New Mexico.” Al smiled, “Don’t worry; we have a well equipped gym and swimming area on site. Anything you need you can bring along with you, but if you’re anything like the rest of the people there you won’t have time to be bored.”

“Cool, swimming pool and hunky marines, sounds good to me.” Buffy grinned as she opened Willow’s door to see her pacing around her desk talking animatedly to the wristlink.

“So you basically are using the Quantum Shift method coupled with the uncertainty principal of quantum flux to create and acceleration effect that would... holy Hannah...” Willow trailed off and collapsed in her seat.

“Admiral, perhaps you should check Miss Rosenberg’s breathing, she has been able to talk for several minutes straight without pausing for breath. Is this feat common in humans Admiral?” Ziggy asked.

“Nope, that’s just our Willow babble for you.” Buffy grinned as she went over and hugged Willow. “So, you interested?”

“Oh god Buffy, they’re dealing with time travel and paradox’s like it was nothing to them, and Dr Becket... he’s stuck, or lost, I’m not sure which, but he’s out there and we’ve got to help him. Please Buffy; we’ve got to help bring him home.” Willow babbled as she pulled away from the hug.

“Whoa, we will Willow. Giles has already agreed to help them, he said for me and you to go along now and he’d come on later.” Buffy smiled as she watched her friends face light up with excitement.

“Ziggy, we’ve got 3 people joining the project. Could you get the paperwork started and organize their rooms please.”

“Of course Admiral.” Ziggy replied as Al picked up the wristlink and placed it back on his hand.

“We’ve got one more stop then it’s back to the project. Is there anything you want to get before we leave?” Al asked the girls who were already grabbing things from Willow’s shelves and throwing them in a duffle bag.

“Uh, quick question... this complex, how do you feel about weapons?” Buffy asked sheepishly.

“What sort of weapons?”

“I believe Miss Summers is referring to the scythe she is currently holding behind her back Admiral, I am unfamiliar with the metal as my scans cannot penetrate the surface of the metal.” Ziggy interrupted, causing Al to raise his eyebrow at Buffy.

“Uh, yeah, can I bring it?” Buffy asked, bringing the Scythe out and laying it on the desk.

“Shouldn’t be a problem, I’m assuming you’re not going to go about cutting marines up or anything.” Al said, a bit bemused that Ziggy couldn’t tell him what it was made out of. Her scanning abilities were top notch; if she couldn’t identify it then it wasn’t natural to Earth.

“Cool.” Buffy grinned and placed it by the side of her bag.

“I’ll go and wait by the jet, you two grab what you want and meet me down there ok?” Al smiled and took a puff of his cigar before leaving the room.

“What are Doctor Giles and Miss Summers specialties Ziggy?” Al asked as he walked down the stairs and out into the crisp air.

“Doctor Giles is a cultural anthropologist who specializes in Myths and Legends; I believe he would be a valuable asset to the research department.” Al just nodded in agreement. “Miss Summers is rather hard to pin down to one specialty; I believe she would be best suited in joining the marines in combat or working with Doctor Beeks in the psychiatry department.”

“Can I ask why you’ve put Buffy with the marines?” Al asked, making a mental note to heck Ziggy for Glitches when he got back to the project.

“Aside from Project Lilac, there are eighteen top secret government agencies that have her on the list for recruitment, almost all of those projects have her listed and working with hostilities and training manoeuvres. Project Lilac has her listed as working with HST’s, a government acronym I am not familiar with.”

Al just let out a low whistle, if all these projects wanted her for something she must be good, if he could just find out what it was she was good at. He was brought out of his musings when the two girls appeared through the front door carrying a large suitcase each and two rucksacks, Buffy was carrying a further two rucksacks on her arm and the scythe strapped across her back.

“Think you got enough stuff there ladies?” Al asked with a grin.

“No, but Giles is going to bring the rest later, he said we shouldn’t take all the space when you said you had another stopover, I’m guessing someone else to recruit to the project?”

“Uh, yeah.” Al muttered, realizing that they had answered his joke seriously.

“Load it on the back and I’ll tell the pilot we’re ready for our next stop.” Al grinned as he watched the girls get on board the plane and dump their gear in the hold. Shaking his head he pulled out his cell phone and dialled the number Ziggy had given him for Joe’s Bar in Seacouver.

“Joe, hi it’s Al.” Al said as the phone was answered.

“Admiral Al Calavicci now.” Al grinned into the phone.

“Look, I’ll be in Seacouver in about three hours, looking to recruit someone for a government project, thought I might be able to use you’re bar for a neutral meeting place.”

“Sure thing, keep me a beer open. See you soon.” Al grinned as he closed the phone and told the pilot over the com link they were ready to go.




“Will you put that damn thing away!” Al shouted for the umpteenth time this trip, he was glad they were just landing because any more of this and he was likely to kill Buffy himself.

“Not my fault I don’t like plane journeys, I like to stay occupied and I do that by sharpening my scythe.” Buffy grinned as she put the scythe away.

“And what if you slipped and cut your arm off, or my arm off?” Al shouted as the squeal of rubber against tarmac signalled that they had landed.

“I take offense to that, I have never cut someone’s arm off by accident have I Willow?” Buffy asked, pouting at her best friend as she slid the Scythe back into place.

Willow just grinned and flushed bright red when Al looked at her.

“Why are we here anyway? Who else you recruiting for the good cause?” Buffy grinned and she rested back in her seat waiting for the plane to stop.

“Doctor Adam Pierson, cultural anthropology and history.” Al read from the folder. “Ziggy thinks he’d made a good addition to the research team.”

“Fair enough, let’s go then.” Buffy grinned and stood up, bouncing with energy after being cooped up for so long on the plane.

“Next trip, I’m sending her with Weitzman, maybe even Howler.” Al muttered, and then grinned at the thought of leaving the oversight committee with Buffy for an hour. Maybe there would be some way he could promote her inside the project, even though she wasn’t officially military, she could deal with all the bureaucrats then, maybe he’d even let her take her sharp scythe. “Come on then.” Al grinned as he opened the door to the plane and lowered the stairs. If he could get out of oversight meetings then this trip was looking better and better all the time.

Buffy and Willow spent the trip to Joe’s bar in silence while Al was on the phone convincing Doctor Pierson to meet them at the bar, it was a tough sell but he eventually piqued Doctor Pierson’s interest enough by talking about his friendship with Joe to allow them to meet at the bar.

“Joe!” Al exclaimed as he walked in the bar and lit up a cigar. “It’s been an age.”

“Al, dear god, who made you an Admiral?” Joe grinned as he hobbled over to Al and shook his hand. “Wasn’t it you that said that anyone about the rank of captain was a horses ***?”

“Lieutenant actually.” Al grinned, remembering their day’s at the academy when Joe was shipping out to Vietnam.

“Right, so Adam tells me you’re here to recruit him for some project?” Joe grinned as he watched Al’s eyebrows shoot up.

“I just wanted to make sure that you two actually knew each other before meeting you myself, though I am intrigued as to what you want me for.” Adam grinned as he swung around on the bar stool and had to quickly hide his shock as he saw who was stood with the Admiral. Bloody hell, what’s the Slayer doing with the military?

“Well we want you for historical accuracy while working on a project in New Mexico.” Al said, carefully looking around the bar and making sure it was empty before continuing.

“Historical accuracy?” Adam grinned, now it was sounding interesting, though still a cover story he was guessing.

“We want you to work in the research department and work on loading our databases with all important information from any given date, we need it done fast and accurately and were told that you were the best at what you do.” Al smiled, it never hurt to stroke the ego of someone if you wanted them to come and work for you, especially someone as good as this.

“And what years would I be researching?” Adam grinned, he could pull up information from anywhere in the last five thousand years just off the top of his head and not need to research them, the advantages on an immortal photographic memory he thought to himself and smiled even more.

“Could be anything, we won’t know until an hour or so before we tell you. Could be a year ago, could be fifty years ago, hell, could be five hundred years ago for all I know.” Al said, carefully schooling his features as to not give anything away.

“Sounds interesting Admiral,” Adam grinned and turned to the Slayer. “Adam Pierson.” He said, holding out his hand and turning on his full charm.

“Buffy, and this is Willow” Buffy smiled and took the offered hand.

“My pleasure, and what is it you two bring to this project?” Adam grinned, though inwardly wondering what the slayer could bring to a research project.

“I’m just here as support for Willow, she’s the one working on Quantum doodah’s and computers.” Buffy smiled as Al raised his eyebrows.

“Quantum doodah’s?” Adam repeated with a grin.

“Science, not my strong suit.” Buffy grinned, “But I’m told there’s a pool so I’ll be happy.”

“Sounds good, so you want me to help with research, fair enough. Where?” Adam turned his full attention to Al.

“New Mexico, the project complex is built into a mountain range there.” Al said, hoping that he’d provided enough interest to get the man to come onboard.

“Ok, let me have five minutes with Miss Summers and then I’ll make my decision, we’ll be five minutes Joe.” Adam said before walking into Joe’s office, leaving a stunned Al and Buffy behind him. “Are you coming Miss Summers?”

Buffy just raised her eyebrow before looking at Al for confirmation, seeing him shrug didn’t really help her make up her mind so she followed the man carefully into the office and turned to him with a critical eye when he closed the door behind her.

“So, perhaps you can tell me what the slayer is doing on a research project?” Adam grinned as he watched the dumbstruck look on her face.

“How... What... Huh?” Buffy finally settled on.

“I’m a Watcher; it’s my job to know. I thought Mr Giles was you’re Watcher at the moment, what happened with him?” Adam said, sitting on the desk and giving the slayer some room to pace.

“He’s coming too, something that’s interesting and can help people. That’s all I can tell you, something about top clearance, blah blah blah, I didn’t really pay attention, other than “Don’t tell anyone or we’ll throw you in jail,” sounded pretty real to me so I’ll keep quiet.” Buffy grinned and sat down confident now that he was no threat.

“So it’s important and top secret, anything to do with the Initiative?” Adam grinned again at the look that passed over her face. “Again, Watcher. It’s my job to know.”

“Ok, I get it smarty pants, and no, nothing to do with the Initiative. Something that could really help us though, maybe even help the world.” Buffy said, desperately wanting to tell him what the project was about but not wanting to get thrown in jail over it.

“Ok, I’m in. If just to keep an eye on you and Ripper.” Adam grinned again and the look she gave him, if the Slayer was this easy to effect this project may not be as boring as he thought. “Shall we tell the Admiral?”

Buffy just shook her head and opened the door, and I thought watchers were all stuffy and British, where can I get one like him? Buffy grinned as she appreciated Adam’s *** as he walked out the door.

“Ok, I’m in Admiral; I take it we’ll be leaving now.” Adam grinned at the look that Al sent both him and Buffy.

“Yes, the jet is waiting to take us straight to the project.” Al said, trying to get his head round all of this, things certainly wouldn’t be boring at the project anymore.

“Ok, I’ll just get my bags and we’ll go.” Adam said, walking behind the bar and grabbing the two hold all’s he’d placed there earlier.

“You were planning on coming anyway?” Buffy asked.

“Are you sure Adam?” Joe asked.

“He’s a friend right Joe?” Adam asked and waited for the nod before continuing. “After the whole mess with Jacob Kell it’d be nice to get away from the damn Highlander for a bit, this will be a nice vacation from it all.”

“Fair enough, stay in contact old man.” Joe grinned, embracing Adam.

“Will do, Tell Macleod I’ll be in contact as well.” Adam grinned and threw the bags over his shoulder. “So, shall we?”

“Fair enough.” Al said, nodding towards the door. “Thought I’d be here longer than that Joe, I’ll have to come back this way sometime. Keep safe ok old friend.” Al smiled and shook Joe’s hand before walking out of the door and back to the car.

“So, fancy telling me what this projects really about Admiral?” Adam asked when the car had started moving.

“Time Travel.” Al said simple.

“Fair enough, don’t tell me.” Adam said sarcastically, thinking it was a joke.

“I’m serious.” Al said, looking at Buffy and Willow as they nodded.

“Really?” Adam said, looking at the Slayer for confirmation and going a bit pale when she nodded. “Wow.”

“Get this, they’ve already lost someone in time, they want us to help get him back.” Buffy said, simplifying things as she understood them.

“You lost someone in time?” Adam asked, turning to Al, disbelief showing on his face.

“Read this you’ll probably understand it better than I do.” Al said before handing over the project introduction folder.

“I’ll take your word for it Admiral.” Adam said, flicking through the document and blanching at all the complex equations inside. “So, who did you lose? Anyone important? And when did you lose them? His time, not ours... actually ours as well please; I can tell this is going to give me a headache.”

Buffy just nodded, not wanting to think about trying to get past, present and future tenses into the right sentence now they were dealing with different timeframes.

“Sam Becket, the head physicist on the project. He first leapt in nineteen ninety eight, since then he’s been leaping about in time, putting things right. We lost contact with him approximately fifteen hours ago when he leapt and changed my history, out last records put him somewhere in nineteen sixty nine.” Al said, now going into full business mode. “We want to send someone back to retrieve him.”

Everyone just sat back in the car seats, letting that sink in. They were going to send someone back nearly forty years in time to bring someone back.

“Well, you did say it would be interesting.” Adam grinned at Buffy causing her to laugh out loud.




Project Quantum Leap Complex, New Mexico


“If you’d all just stand on the white tile and state you’re name for Ziggy, we’ll get you’re bioscan filed away for records.” Al said, motioning to the glowing white tile in the centre of the room.

“Will it hurt?” Buffy asked suspiciously.

“No, it’s harmless, see.” Al said, smiling as he stepped onto the tile and allowed the pink and yellow beams to run over his body. After thirty seconds the beams dissipated and he stepped off. “See, fine. So, who’s next?”

Buffy smiled and stepped up to the tile and stated her name for Ziggy, interested to see what sort of things it would find. “What sort of things is this scanning for?”

“Body type, DNA, blood type, any contagions, diseases, anything like that. It runs a full genetic profile of you and stores all the information in Ziggy in case of any medical emergency.” Al smiled as the scan started running over Buffy.

“Anomaly found, muscle mass and slight energy anomaly found in subject Buffy Summers.” Ziggy reported as she continued the scan.

“Are the anomalies dangerous to either Buffy or other personnel Ziggy?” Al asked, now even more intrigued by the puzzle that was slowly unfolding itself in front of him.

“Negative, subject anomalies would enhance strength and stamina to unforeseen levels Admiral. Cause of anomalies unknown.” Ziggy continued as the scan finished.

“Weird.” Buffy said as she stepped off the tile.

“You know anything about these ‘anomalies’ Buffy?” Al asked, eying Buffy cautiously.

“Maybe, I’ll have to ask Giles about it.” Buffy said sheepishly.

“Fair enough, but if these anomalies are giving you the strength that Ziggy said, I’d be interested in seeing you spar sometime.” Al grinned; maybe putting her with the marines was the perfect place for her, having her about would definitely be a piece of mind if anyone tried to escape the waiting room.

Buffy just smiled as Willow stepped onto the platform.

“Willow Rosenberg.” She said before squealing softly and closing her eyes tightly as the yellow and pink beams of light started running over her body.

“Anomaly detected.” Ziggy reported.

“The same anomaly as Buffy?” Al asked

“Negative.” Ziggy said as she continued the scan. “Energy anomaly detected throughout subject Rosenberg’s entire body, energy of unknown origin.”

“Is the energy dangerous to Miss Rosenberg or any other occupants of the project complex?” Al asked, now a bit confused.

“Negative, energy is of safe nature, though exhibits a slight quantum resonance.” Ziggy stated as the scan finished. “Energy would have no serious impact on subject Rosenberg or any appliance as is of neither an AC nor DC nature.”

“Ok, weird.” Al said as he watched Willow walk over to Buffy and hide behind her. “Let me guess, ask Giles?”

Willow just nodded silently.

“And now for you, Doctor Pierson.” Al Smiled, this was turning out to be more interesting than he thought.

“Don’t suppose there’s any way out of this?” Adam asked as he eyed the scanner cautiously.

“Nope, everyone has to do it to get inside the project.” Al said, now wondering what he would find.

“Fair enough.” Truth be told he wasn’t really worried, no one had ever been able to quantify the energy of a quickening, he’d be really interested if this Ziggy could. Maybe he could find out some more about what the quickening was and how it affected immortals.

Stepping up to the scanner Adam held his breath subconsciously as the beams started running over his body.

“Weapon located, please remove the weapon and place it aside before returning to the scan.” Ziggy’s voice filled the room causing the two marines by the door to raise their sidearm’s to aim at Adam.

“Place the weapon on the side Doctor Pierson.” Al said, eying the man cautiously. He hadn’t seen any weapon on his during the car journey or the plane journey, if he’d managed to hide a pistol from him he’d be interested in finding out where.

“Ok,” Adam grinned as he walked over to the desk on the side and pulled his Ivanhoe out from his coat, causing exclamations to come from everyone in the room.

“What the hell?” Buffy exclaimed, looking at the sword in awe.

“Where the hell did you hide that Pierson?” Al shouted.

“A sword?” Willow asked.

Adam just grinned at the group in response and took his place back on the scanner and let the beams of light resume their work. “Anomaly detected, energy anomaly detected through subject Pierson’s entire genetic makeup. Noteworthy, subject Pierson has the same genetic anomaly to Doctor Becket.” Ziggy reported.

Ok, that was news to him, as far as he knew Sam didn’t have any anomalies in his system, Al thought to himself. “What is the nature of the energy Ziggy?” Al asked, now even more confused about the new group they had brought to the project. Having one anomaly was normal, but three? From different people who weren’t related? This was unheard of.

“Unknown, the energy is of unknown in origin, though the power Subject Pierson has running through his body is over three hundred times as strong as Doctor Becket’s anomaly.” Ziggy reported as he finished the scan.

“How strong Ziggy?” Al asked, now watching Doctor Pierson put the sword back into his coat.

“Subject Pierson currently has over two hundred million MWe running through his body Admiral.” Ziggy reported causing Al to drop his cigar in shock and Willow to do a double take at Adam.

“What?” Buffy asked, now looking at their reactions carefully.

“Buffy, a nuclear power plant only outputs one thousand two hundred MWe.” Willow said in shock, looking at Adam in awe.

“Whoa, powerful then?” Buffy asked. “Wouldn’t want to be around him if he went nuclear.”

Willow and Al just laughed as Adam thought about it, he’d never been able to think about how powerful a quickening was but if Ziggy was right, and it was obvious she was, Quickening's were a lot more powerful than he had previously thought.

“Well, that was interesting, care to see you’re room’s people?” Al said, now trying to get his head round the fact that the guy walking beside him had more power funning through his body than a hundred and fifty thousand nuclear power plants. “If you’d like to use the sparring room, Adam and Buffy, just ask Ziggy to show you the way.”

“Admiral, we are having problems with the Accelerator chamber could you please come and help Gooshie with the safety protocols.” Ziggy’s voice interrupted the walk down the corridor.

“I’ll be there shortly Ziggy, can you please show the new team to their rooms. Sorry but I’ve got to go, Ziggy will show you the way to your rooms.” Al smiled before running off down the corridor and turning away from the main route.

“Ok, sounds serious.” Buffy said, eyeing the pure white corridor with a cautious eye. They all look exactly the same; it would be really easy to get lost here.

“I’m sure that everything will be fine, for some reason the accelerator keeps coming on line Miss Summers. It should be easy to circumvent and safety protocols and shut it down but they do need Admiral Calavicci one site for his access code. If you would like to follow the green light I will show you to your rooms.” Ziggy said as a bright green light appeared on the floor.

“Cool.” Adam simply said with a grin.

“Don’t we need one of those wrist link thingies to talk to you Ziggy?” Willow asked as the green light started moving through the corridors of the complex.

“Only outside of the complex, in the complex all you have to do is speak my name and I will answer the question or deal with your request Miss Rosenberg. I have already set up our chess match as requested in your room using the complex hard light holographic system.” Ziggy said, her voice sounding almost hopeful towards the chess match.

“What if you’re doing something important? I don’t want to take you away from doing something with a trivial question.” Adam asked as he walked down the corridor.

“Not to worry Doctor Pierson, I am quite capable of mapping the entire solar system, scanning the timeline and doing a million quantum calculations at the same time. I am sure whatever I am doing I can answer any questions you have at the same time.” Ziggy said, her voice now sounding proud of her abilities.

Adam just whistled. “Fair enough, just thought I’d ask.”

“Thank you for your consideration Doctor Pierson. Miss Summers, after noting you’re genetic anomaly I have updated the training simulation in the gym to allow for your greater strength. Please make use of it any time you wish and ask me for any situation you need, my hard light holographic system can create anything you request for your training.” Ziggy said as they approached the new quarters.

“Hard light holographic?” Buffy asked, frowning as she tried to wrap her head around all the long words that people would no doubt be using at the project.

“My hard light holographic system can create anything in the complex as needed by anyone with clearance. It is a relatively new system and hasn’t been fully tested, but is fully installed. I feel that allowing you to test the strength of the hard light constructs I could properly gauge how strong the constructs would be in a real life scenario.”

Buffy just smiled, having a hard light system might be fun, it would certainly ease the boredom when Willow and the others were working on the fancy project.

“These are your rooms, Miss Summers, you are in room C34. Miss Rosenberg, you are in room C35 and Doctor Pierson you are in Room C36. Current time is now eleven fifteen at night, I recommend a full night’s sleep before I show you around the complex tomorrow.” Ziggy said as she opened the doors to the rooms.

“Ok, Night you two. Speak to you in the morning.” Adam said and walked into his room, closing the door behind him.

“Ok, night.” Buffy said as Willow nodded. “So, what do you think of the place Will’s?”

“Seems nice, Ziggy is awesome, I can’t wait to start our game.” Willow almost bounced with enjoyment. “I am a little tired though, maybe it could wait for the morning.”

“As you wish Miss Rosenberg” Ziggy said.

“Gah, didn’t know you were still here.” Buffy said, looking about even though she knew she wouldn’t find anything.

“I am always monitoring conversations in the project complex Miss Summers.” Ziggy explained before going quiet again.

“Freaky.” Buffy shuddered before looking at Willow who was yawning loudly. “Yeah, you look tired Will’s, get some sleep and I’ll catch up with you tomorrow.”

“What are you going to do Buffy?” Willow asked, stretching her arms upwards.

“I’ll probably hit the gym, burn off some energy before sleep.” Buffy grinned. “Hey Ziggy, fancy showing me where the gym is?”

“As you wish Miss Summers” Ziggy said as a bright blue light appeared in the corridor and waited for Buffy to finish.

“Ok, night Will’s, see you tomorrow.” Buffy smiled and hugged Willow before turning to the light. “Take it away Ziggy.” The light started moving down the corridor as Buffy followed it.

“Night Buffy.” Willow said mid yawn before heading into her room. This should certainly be an interesting project to work on.


The Next Day

“Hey, Willow, you up yet?” Buffy yelled, knocking on the door.

“I’m here Buffy.” Willow answered, opening the door and stepping out. “Hungry though, where do we go for breakfast around here?”

“I was thinking the same thing.” Adam asked as he walked out of his room. “Ziggy?” he asked cautiously.

“Yes Doctor Pierson?” Ziggy replied.

“Morning Ziggy.” Willow and Buffy smiled, instinctively looking up towards the ceiling as they spoke.

“Good morning Miss Summers and Miss Rosenberg, though it is not necessary, the thought is appreciated.” Ziggy said, happy that they were becoming more accustomed to having her about permanently.

“Ziggy, where do we go for breakfast?” Adam asked.

“If you follow the light I will show you to the staff cafeteria.” Ziggy replied as a red light appeared in the corridor.

“Hey, red, what happened to the green one?” Buffy asked.

“The lights can be any colour I wish Miss Summers; I am using green already in the complex so I cycled to another colour.” Ziggy explained.

“Makes sense.” Buffy mused.

“Fair enough, to food.” Adam smiled and followed the light, closely followed by Buffy and Willow.

They moved through corridor after corridor, all looking exactly the same before coming upon a T-junction.

“Hey, what’s in here?” Willow asked, motioning to an open door where a load of circuitry was lying open and circuit boards were haphazardly thrown about the room.

“That is Oracle’s control room, Oracle will be the second parallel hybrid computer built into the complex when finished. She is currently being loaded with all pertinent information from Doctor Becket’s life but we are having problems with her programming, Admiral Calavicci will be able to explain Oracle further. While we are here however would all three of you please place your hands on the palm scanner for me to retrieve a DNA sample.”

“DNA Sample? Why?” Adam asked a bit sceptical now.

“I have performed several situational analyses over night and have come to the conclusion that one of you three would be the best to travel back in time to retrieve Doctor Becket. The DNA sample will allow me to track you through the time stream and allow contact with the two other members of your team; it is a simple procedure and relatively painless Doctor Pierson.”

“Ok, I’ll go first this time.” Willow smiled and placed her palm over the scanned, squealing sharply as a needle popped up and pulled a tissue sample off her middle finger. “Owchie” Willow said as she pulled her hand off.

“What happened?” Buffy asked, taking a look at Willow’s hand which wasn’t even bleeding anymore.

“Needle or something stuck in my finger.” Willow said, trying to explain what she felt.

“I just took a skin and nerve cell sample; it was needed to allow transmission through the timeline.” Ziggy explained.

“Ok, if it’s needed.” Buffy said, laying her hand on the scanner and allowing the needle to take its sample. “Yowch.” She shouted after it stuck her finger.

“Wow, way to inspire confidence people.” Adam grinned as he placed his hand on the scanner and allowed the needle to take the sample. “See, nothing too it.”

“Thank you, originally it was just doctor Becket and Admiral Calavicci that donated their DNA to the project, now you three are linked I should have no trouble finding any three of you through the timeline and linking you two the remaining two in this timeframe.”

“Fair enough, makes sense to have three people instead of two.” Willow said causing Buffy and Adam no nod their head in agreement.

“So, food now?” Adam asked as his stomach growled in complaint of the holdup.

“Yes, food.” Buffy agreed as they walked out of the room and back to the corridor. “Show us the way to food Ziggy.” She grinned at the red light came back and started to move down the left corridor.

“Finally.” Adam grinned as they approached the cafeteria. “Wouldn’t like to try and find my way back to the room through all that, how big is the complex Ziggy?”

“Project Quantum Leap currently takes over fifteen percent of the mountain, stretching six miles into the mountain and four miles underground. It includes over forty miles of tunnelling and several large cavernous openings for the gym and other openings.”

Buffy and Adam whistled, now really glad to have Ziggy to show them around, “So, what’s the plan today Ziggy?” Willow asked as she sat down in the empty cafeteria.

“After breakfast I am to show you to the control room where Admiral Calavicci will continue you’re induction.” Ziggy explained as the group sat down with their breakfast.

“Thank you Ziggy, are you still up for the chess match tonight?” Willow asked.

“Certainly Miss Rosenberg, just call me when you are ready.” Ziggy said before going quiet.

“Wow, you’re certainly getting on with Ziggy.” Adam said to Willow, digging into his bacon and sausage sandwich.

“She’s great, do you know she has the combined intelligence of Newton, Einstein, Bohr, Schrödinger and loads more. She’s amazing.” Willow said as she poured some more milk on her cereal.

“The gym was amazing; I spend hours working through training scenarios last night. The hard light whatsit is amazing; you should check it out sometime Adam.” Buffy said, as she started on a banana before digging into her main breakfast.

“That good?” Adam asked, now interested it if could keep up with a slayer.

“Better, she actually wore me down and learnt from my past battles. She’s really good at learning from the fighting and enhancing the program until she win’s. Best workout I’ve had in years.” Buffy explains, “It’d be better if she would let me turn the safety protocols off, but still it’s realistic enough to give my senses a tingle in a fight.”

“You didn’t get hurt did you?” Willow asked, now worried for her friend.

“Nah, I loved it. Gonna head back tonight, you’re welcome to join me if you want Adam.” Buffy grinned, finishing her banana and starting on her large full English breakfast.

“Sounds good.” Adam grinned; it had been a while since he’d had a good workout. He’d been getting a lot better since working with Macleod, but still, the chance to get a full workout whenever he wanted and to be able to go all out, it was too good to miss.

“So, Adam, what’s the story with the sword?” Buffy asked, remembering the energy anomaly from yesterday.

“I enjoy fencing.” Adam grinned, not willing to say anymore on the subject.

The group soon finished their breakfast and headed upto the control room, ready for Al to finish introducing them to the rest of the project staff.

“So, this is the control room huh? Colourful.” Adam grinned at the coloured blocks that made up the control panels.

“Sam designed it; he had a thing for the 80’s.” Al explained as he walked in behind them.

“Looks like someone played with too much Lego when he was younger.” Buffy grinned as Al laughed.

“Don’t think Sam ever played with Lego, he was doing long calculus when he was five.” Al explained, causing dumbfounded looks from the group.

“Wow.” Willow was the first to voice how she felt when she looked up and saw Ziggy’s neural network.

“Huh?” Buffy asked before following her gaze. “Whoa, pretty.”

“Ziggy’s ‘Brain’ as I like to call it. It’s a combination of neural packs, up-to-date stem cell research and combinations of mine and Sam’s DNA, and now I’m told you three have added DNA to your own neural pack.”

“Uhuh” Buffy said as Adam and Willow nodded.

“The accelerator chamber is through there and the imaging chamber is through here, which would you like to see first?” Al asked, smiling at the excited face Willow gave at seeing the heart of the project.

“I’ll take a look at the imaging chamber; I’d love to see how you’re holographic system works.” Willow grinned as she walked up to the chamber door, jumping back slightly as it hissed open.

“I’ll take the accelerator room if you don’t mind Admiral. I’d like to see how the accelerator actually is shielded from the Radium ring.” Adam smiled as he thrust his hands into his pockets and walked towards the room, but was disappointed as the door remained shut.

“I’m afraid you can’t go into the accelerator chamber until you’re wearing a fermisuit, they’re to protect the room as well as your body from the electromagnetic fields.” Al walked up to the chamber door and pulled open a small compartment to the side, pulling out a fermisuit for Adam. “Change into this and you can go in and take as much time as you want.”

“Think I’ll skip that one.” Buffy said, grimacing at the skin-tight fermisuit Al was holding up.

“Eep.” Willow just squeaked at the idea of wearing the formfitting white outfit.

“Suit yourselves.” Adam grinned and moved into the back of the room and started undressing.

“Shall we give Doctor Pierson some privacy?” Al said as he opened the door to the imaging room. “Putting on the fermisuit can get quite close.”

Willow just blushed bright red and practically ran into the imaging room, while Buffy watched Adam undressing a bit longer before joining them and watching as the door hissed shut behind them.

“Enjoying the view Buffy?” Willow grinned at her friend.

“Can you blame me? That accent, and that body, it’s enough to turn a good girl bad.” Buffy grinned looking about the soft blue room.

“Well, this is the imaging chamber.” Al started, trying to draw the talk away from the girls chatter about Doctor Pierson. “Ziggy, can you get a lock on Sam yet?”

“Negative Admiral, the last known location of Doctor Becket was in San Diego, California on April first, nineteen sixty nine.” Ziggy confirmed.

“Can you run a recording of the leap previous to that, starting from my appearance in the bar on August eighth nineteen fifty three?”

“Certainly Admiral, please stand by.” Ziggy confirmed as the soft blue of the room flashed bright white before fading into its usual blue again.

“Nothing happened.” Buffy said, disappointed, she at least expected to see something.

“Oh, sorry, forgot this run was from the previous neural connection.” Al said as he held out his hands to each of the girls. “Take my hand and you’ll see what it was like.”

Buffy cautiously reached out and took Al’s hand, as Willow did on the other side, as their skin made contact the room burst into life.

“Wow!” Willow explained looking around the bar; she could see Al and Doctor Becket talking in the corner. He was wearing the same dress outfit as yesterday instead of the bright blue shirt and black pants he had on today.

“Is this real?” Buffy said, reaching out with her free hand to touch someone, jerking it back as it passed through them.

“No, this is a soft light imaging chamber, the hard light versions are years away from being complete, even then you wouldn’t really be able to interact with the past, only fake versions of it in this time frame. Ziggy thought the idea would help the leaper be more comfortable with his or her hologram if they were interacting with the chairs and tables of the past rather than walking through them like ghosts.”

“Makes sense, I’m a little freaked out with the whole moving through things, makes me feel like a ghost or something.” Willow said, moving her hand in and out of a table slowly.

Suddenly the simulation froze before dissolving away pixel by pixel. “Admiral, the accelerator chamber had activated again.”

“What?” Al screamed, letting go of the girls and rushing to the door, banging his fist on it when it wouldn’t open. “Who’s in there and why won’t this door open?”

“Doctor Pierson is currently inside the accelerator chamber screaming in several languages Admiral, would you like to hear him?” Ziggy explained her calm voice rather at odds with the circumstances.

“Why won’t you open the damn door Ziggy?” Al demanded, punching the door again.

“As you are fully aware doctor, the activation of the accelerator chamber locks all rooms within the Radium circle in case of catastrophic overload I cannot override the process, neither can you without the handlink or the main console.” Ziggy calmly explained.

“Which are both in the control room damnit; put me on speaker with Doctor Pierson.”

A loud voice swearing fluently in Sumerian came flowing over the loud speaker. “I don’t think that one’s even possible without a hernia or several back operations.” Willow said, grinning when she translated the words to herself.

“What? Never mind, Pierson, did you touch anything?”

“No I bloody well didn’t, what’s going on? One second I’m here taking a look about, the next thing I know this green clock appeared and the entire room stated humming and shaking. The doors locked and the temperatures dropping in here bloody fast.” The voice came over the intercom, angry and anxious about the situation.

“What does the clock say now Pierson?” Al asked, worriedly. If the temperature had dropped noticeably then the accelerator was about to fire, and it didn’t have any coordinates locked in, much like Sam’s first leap it would be completely random in Pierson’s own lifetime.

“Twelve seconds and counting, what the hell is going on here?” Adam shouted over the com system.

“The accelerators about to fire, stand in the middle of the room on the grate with your hands and arms pointed to the ceiling. Maybe it won’t fire fully but I don’t want to take that chance, the outside of the room is about to be flooded with Quantum agitated particles before firing them into the time stream, if you get caught in that you’ll be ripped apart and scattered through the time stream like jam.”

“Bloody hell.” Adam screamed over the intercom and ran into the centre of the room and did as Al suggested. It may not kill him, theoretically he could survive even that, but he sure as hell didn’t want to be alive forever spread throughout time like jam.

“What’s the clock on?” Al shouted.

“Eight seconds, what’s going to happen?” Adam asked, now scared because he had no idea what the accelerator was built for or how it would interact with his immortal physiology.

“It’s alright Doctor Pierson, you have already put your DNA into the neural net with Willow and Buffy, you’ll be ‘leapt’ somewhere in your own lifetime, twenty eight years isn’t that far to search, we’ll have Buffy or Willow as holograms for you in no time.” Al explained, damnit, they wanted to get Sam back, not loose someone else in the time stream.

“MY own lifetime?!?!” Adam shouted over the com link as a voice started counting down.

“Three.”

“Two.”

“Get Joe and Mac...”

“Fire.” Ziggy said and the entire complex was bathed in a bright white light that made any sort of sight impossible.

“Damnit Ziggy, did the Accelerator fire fully?” Al asked, punching the door in agitation.

“I am afraid so Admiral, Doctor Pierson is no longer in the Accelerator chamber.” Ziggy confirmed and opened the door.

“Where is he?” Willow asked, now worried about the prospect of getting launched into the time stream herself.

“Unknown, I am scanning dates from Doctor Pierson’s birthday to today but have been unable to locate him so far. Doctor Pierson’s last words were ‘Get Joe and...’ the last word was intelligible as the accelerator fired.” Ziggy said, humming as she completed her scans. “I have now completed my search of the specified time frames, Doctor Pierson is not in the timeline in any day from December twenty ninth, nineteen seventy eight through to today.”

“Then where the hell is he Ziggy?” Al shouted, booting up the main console and firing up a diagnostic of the accelerator chamber.

“Unknown admiral, I am using all available research nodes to scan through the period in history but am having no luck so far. I can only surmise that Doctor Pierson is not within the dates he gave as his own lifetime.” Ziggy continued. “I can only propose that you do as he requested, call ‘Joe’ and find out any information as to why he would not be within his own lifetime.”

“Get Joe Dawson from Seacouver on the line right now Ziggy.” Al shouted, and was rewarded by a dial tone ringing through the air.

“Wow, better than a cell phone.” Buffy said, trying to lighten the mood and then shrunk back when Al glared at her.

“Joe’s place, Joe speaking.” A voice came over the intercom.

“Joe, Al here.” Al said, trying to remain calm.

“Al, what’s up? Having problems with Adam already?” Joe laughed down the line, thinking about what sort of problems Methos could get up to on a top secret government research base.

“More than you would know, Joe, what’s Adam’s birthday?” Al asked, reading the printout of the diagnostic that printed out in front of him.

“Why’d you want to know that?” Joe asked suspiciously.

“Damnit to hell, Ziggy locate Doctor Peterman and seal him in wherever he is. Joe, sorry to break this to you but I’ve got no choice.” Al slammed his fist down on the control desk. “We’ve lost Adam, he was in the accelerator chamber when it fired, someone sabotaged the event trying to get rid of me or one of the girls, Adam was inside when it happened.”

“Who did it?” Buffy screamed, snatching the printout from Al’s hands to looking at it quickly before handing it to Willow.

“What Accelerator? What happened to Adam?” Joe’s concerned voice came over the intercom again.

“The Quantum Accelerator, it’s the heart of this project, to send people back in time. They can travel in and out of the time stream putting things right in the world, but only within their own lifetime. Adam was caught in the room when it fired.” Al explained.

“Ziggy, where is Doctor Peterman confined?” Willow asked.

“Doctor Peterman is confined in between corridor’s 19A and 19B on subsection Alpha 16 on the west wing of the project.” Ziggy’s voice explained.

“Joe, how old is Adam, I need to know to find him and try and figure out where he is.” Al shouted over the room.

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you Al, trust me on that.” Joe said, not wanting to give away his friends secret, but not wanting to be the death of him either.

“Damnit Joe just tell me, I’m dealing with time travel here, how open minded do you think I am?” Al shouted banging his hands on the control desk again.

“Ziggy, show me the way to Peterman.” Buffy shouted, smiling when a pink light appeared in front of her and started moving down the corridors. “Faster, you’ve seen me run Ziggy.” Buffy shouted as the light started gaining speed Buffy took off down the corridors faster that Willow or Al could follow.

“He’s an Immortal.” Joe said softly over the phone.

“A what?” Al said in disbelief.

“Oh, I know. He’s a true immortal, otherwise known as a KatalMach. They are just like us, you know, normal people, but they can’t die, unless you chop of their heads. I read about them in the pergamemnon codex, some prophecy about ‘the eldest will be the first and then the last before starting the cycle again.’” Willow explained, remembering reading about them while they were researching the mayor’s immortality back in high school.

“Yes, and I’d be interested to know where you got your hands on that book young lady.” Joe asked, worried about the information about immortals falling into the wrong hands, especially the Pergamemnon codex.

“So he’s old, how old?” Al asked, trying to get his head around the fact that there are immortals around the world that can’t die unless you take their heads off.

“Mflmmfl” a muffled sound came over the line.

“Joe, this is a secure government line, Ziggy is keeping an eye on the transmission for any unauthorised taps.” Al explained, now a bit more at ease, Adam being immortal meant he couldn’t easily be killed during his leaps, that was a load of his mind.

“Around five thousand give or take.” Joe said, grimacing at the thought of the Methos of today running into the Methos of four thousand years ago.

“Five... five... five...” Al just collapsed to the floor, slumping in the corner and trying to get his head round that.

“I think you just broke the Admiral Mister Dawson.” Willow said smiling softly at the sight of Al on the floor trying to understand what a five thousand year old man would do with his life. “Can I ask you a question though? The only immortal I know of that was that old would be... holy Hannah, you mean to say Adam is Methos, he’s Adam in the biblical sense?”

“Well I don’t know about being ‘that’ Adam, but he’s Methos, you can guarantee it.” Joe said, “Is there any chance you can get him back, or find him at all?”

“Affirmative Mister Dawson, with your information about Doctor Pierson’s enhanced lifespan I have begun scanning the timeline for his quantum signature we should be able to locate him within four hours and sixteen minutes.”

“Thank you, whoever you are, I don’t need to tell you how much Methos means to me, he’s a friend, not just the oldest man on the planet.” Joe said, his gratitude could be heard in his voice.

“Admiral, someone has just arrived in the waiting room.” Ziggy commented with an almost surprised voice.

“Track his signature and narrow the time frame from where he came from, that’s where Pierson, Methos, whoever he is will be.” Al shouted standing up. “Willow, where’s Buffy?”

“She took off after the saboteur” Willow explained, grinning at the face Al pulled. “Trust me; she can take care of herself, look up the records of her training with Ziggy last night if you don’t believe me.”

“This got something to do with the abnormality Ziggy found?” Al asked as he pulled up the handlink and handed it over to Willow.

“That’s for her to tell, what’s this?” Willow took the offered handlink and turned in around in her hands, trying to get a good feel for the blocky device.

“It’s a communications link with Ziggy, you can use it in the imaging chamber while you’re talking with Adam, and I’ll go and find out what I can from whoever he bounced out. You go and try and talk to Pierson, hope he’s in a better mood than he was when he left.” Al chuckled and walked over to the waiting room door.

“What?” Willow squealed. “Me? Talk to Adam? What should I say, what should I do? You do this, please?” Willow babbled thrusting the handlink out in front of her towards Al.

“I can’t, the only people who are tuned to each other are you, Buffy and Adam, and since Buffy is now tracking down the saboteur that just leaves you.” Al said with a smile. “You’ll do fine, Ziggy’s there in the handlink to give you any information you need, he might be a little swiss cheesed from the leap, just let him go with the flow of it, I don’t know which rules apply here or don’t. Just tell him what’s happened, but don’t tell him anything that could adversely affect the timeline ok?”

“But...” Willow started as Al opened the door to the waiting room to see a man there pacing about the room in confusion.

“You’ll do fine, now go.” Al said before closing the door and starting to calm the man down.

“Why me? What do I say to a five thousand year old man?” Willow asked before opening the imaging chamber door.

“I recommend saying nothing about his immortality Miss Rosenberg, if he remembers allow him to do it on his own time, just treat him as you would anyone else.” Ziggy replied, trying to reassure her as she powered up the imaging chamber.

“Easy for you to say, where, no, when is he?” Willow asked, now looking at the handlink carefully and eying the scrolling numbers and letters carefully. “What?! That can’t be right, can it?”


“Now, why did you try and kill me or my friends?” Buffy asked again as she held the man by his throat, blood streaming from his nose where she had punched him the first time.

“It was meant for Pierson, to kill him.” The man shouted before spitting blood in her face. “They’re abominations all of them, Horton was right, they should all be killed.” Peterson shouted again before crunching down on something with his teeth, suddenly he was choking and spitting up blood before he collapsed lifelessly on the floor.

“Ziggy? What happened?” Buffy asked, dropping the dead body.

“I am detecting traces of Cyanide in his system, I believe he took his own life rather than tell you about his reasons for killing Doctor Pierson.” Ziggy replied after a pink light shone over the dead body.

“Great, what’s Al and Willow up to?” Buffy asked as a few marines came round the corner with their guns drawn to see the dead scientist.

“Admiral Calavicci is now attempting to calm down the new arrival in the waiting room; Miss Rosenberg is in the imaging chamber talking with Doctor Pierson.” Ziggy replied.

“Great, can you show me the way back and tell these guys what has happened here?” Buffy shouted before starting to run back the way she came, smiling as the familiar pink light appeared beside her before taking the lead.

“As you wish Miss Summers.” Ziggy said as she started to fill the marines in.


“So, mister?” Al left the statement open, wanting to get as much information from his as he could.

“What am I doing here? Where am I?” The man replied with an obvious Scottish accent.

“You’re safe, don’t worry, we mean you no harm.” Al said, holding his hands out to try and pacify the man.

“Safe, bah. Where the hell am I? And where’s Heather?” The man shouted again, “and where’s my bloody sword?”

“Sword?” Al asked, now that Pierson was leaping through five thousand years of history, instead of the fifty odd years that Sam was restricted too, thing would get a lot more interesting around here, that was for sure.

“Aye, my sword, and what manner of suit it that? You look like a peacock.” The man laughed with a strong Scottish brogue.

“Ok, can you just tell me your name please? And the date?” Al asked, his hand already on his face not wanting to know the answer.

“Fair enough, aye, I’ll humour you. I’m Connor Macleod of the clan Macleod, and unless I’m mistaken it’s fifteen forty one in the year of our lord. Now where am I?” Connor asked, standing up now getting extremely agitated. “Where is Heather and where is Ramirez?”

Al didn’t reply, he just stood there watching the man in shock.


“Doctor Pierson, are you alright?” Willow asked as she found Pierson looking up at the castle in front of him.

“Willow!” Methos exclaimed, “Thank god you’re here, but where is here? Where... when am I? And why did that bloody thing go off?”

“Easy, easy. Its fifteen forty one and you’re on the Scottish highlands, somewhere near Glen Finnen if I’m reading this right.” Willow said, shaking the handlink and causing soft electronic squeals to come from it. “You’re name is...”

“Connor Macleod.” Methos said, holding up the sword and eying the hilt of it.

“You know him?” Willow asked, trying to gauge how much of Adam’s memory was gone.

“Know him? How could I know him, this was nearly five hundred years ago.” Adam said, trying to laugh at it but unable to because of the situation.

“Joe filled us in; he had to, to help us find you. So, should I call you Methos or Adam?” Willow asked, a smirk on her lips.

“Fine, Adam’s fine please and yes I knew him, he was a good friend. One of my students, Ramirez is going to die soon, if he hasn’t already at the hands of a vile bastard called the Kurgan.” Methos explained.

“Maybe that’s what you’re here to change. Ziggy says that when you leap, you have to put right a mistake in the timeline before leaping on. You stop his murder and you’ll move on, maybe all the way back home.” Willow said hopefully.

“Ok, so you want me to fight the Kurgan so Ramirez doesn’t die?” Methos said with a grin.

“Any way you can do it, just make sure he survives. I take it they are both like you then, immortals?” Willow asked, now wanting to learn more about what he had seen and done over the years.

“Yes, Ramirez was a friend of mine, an old student. I met him in six hundred and fifty four BC in Egypt, he was quite the student.” Methos said fondly. “I didn’t learn of his death until a few hundred years later, sometime in the eighteenth century when me and Conner met up, it was a sad day.”

“Well maybe you can change that, stop him from dying and maybe you can meet him again when you get back home.” Willow said, trying to keep Adam’s spirits up. “Think you can beat him, this Kurgan?”

Suddenly a sound came from the corner and both Willow and Methos span their heads to see a white door open in thin ain and Buffy come walking out of it with a handlink identical to Willows.

“Wow, this is amazing.” Buffy said, grinning as she poked her head inside and wall and then pulled it out again.

“Yeah, yeah, fun to be a hologram, I’m really here.” Methos shouted.

“Conner, what’s all that noise?” A female voice came from the castle.

“Oh, that’ll be Heather, your wife.” Buffy filled in for him.

“Nothing Heather, I’ll be right in.” Methos shouted up to the castle.

“Ramirez is waiting for you by the loch, don’t be late, you know he hates it when you’re late.” The voice called again before going silent.

“He’s still alive.” Methos said with awe in his voice before placing his sword back in his belt and running down to the loch.

“Who’s still alive?” Buffy asked.

“One of his own students, I’ll tell you later, let’s get down there and see what’s happening.” Willow said before starting running after Methos down the hill. It was a weird feeling, knowing there should be air and wind here but feeling nothing.

“Wow, it all looks so clean and fresh.” Buffy said as they slowed down to approach the loch.

“It was back then, no pollution, no coal mines or anything, just clean, crisp air.” Methos grinned, happy to be able to relive some of the best times of his life, and able to talk to a very old friend.

“Adam, Ziggy says you can’t tell him who you are, you’ve got to make everyone believe that you are Connor Macleod for this to work or you won’t leap.” Willow said, reading the handlink and it chirped and beeped.

“What?” Methos said, stopping and turning to face Willow.

“You have to pretend you’re Connor, if you don’t you’re stuck here and he’s stuck in our time.” Willow explained again.

“Ok, pretend I’m Connor, doesn’t sound too hard, I don’t have to do the accent do I? I sound like an idiot when I try to do Scottish.” Methos grinned as Willow and Buffy burst out laughing.

“No, Ziggy says that he’ll hear you as if you were Connor, just act like he did and you’ll be fine.” Buffy grinned as she saw a man on the shore of the loch. “That him?”

“Yeah, that’s him.” Methos grinned as he started to walk up to the man. “Ramirez.” Methos said by way of greeting.

“About time you bloody highlander, anyone would think you didn’t want to train.” Ramirez said with a swagger as he unclipped his cloak and unsheathed his sword.

“Sorry, I was talking to Heather.” Methos explained, trying to act like Connor would with his sword.

“Well, finally you’re holding the sword right, looks like you have been paying attention to some of my lessons.” Ramirez grinned before lunging at him.

Methos just parried the stroke away and fell into a traditional Asian fighting stance.

“Where did you learn that Highlander?” Ramirez stopped, almost shaken physically by the stance that Connor was in.

“Remember you’re supposed to be Connor, not Methos or Adam, or whoever you want to be. Connor obviously doesn’t know Wing Chun.” Buffy said, annoyed that she couldn’t spar with him now, from the way he dropped into the fighting style, he’d obviously been doing it a long time.

“It just feels right, why? Is there something wrong with it Ramirez?” Methos asked, trying desperately not to grin.

“Not at all, I’m just surprised that is all. It is a form of fighting known as Wing Chun, developed in the Middle East, lands far from here. My teacher used to use it before we parted ways, he was quite the adept.” Ramirez explained, pulling up a gourd and taking a swift drink from it.

“You never told me about him, who was he, what was he like?” Methos said, while he didn’t really know if Ramirez had mentioned him or not to Connor, it was nice just to talk with the man again.

“His name was Et-Maru, he was an old one, I last saw him in Egypt, about a thousand years ago. He was a good friend; I hope to see him again one day. But enough talk of the past, let’s see if you have truly learnt anything Highlander.” Ramirez grinned a predatory smile before lunging at Methos again, only to find his quarry not in front of him, but behind him with his sword at his throat.

“I think you’ll find I’ve improved quite a bit Ramirez.” Methos said before laughing out loud and holding his hand out to his friend. “Why don’t we just talk today, surely there must be more to fighting that just swordsmanship.”

“You’re right, there is plenty more I can teach you about you’re immortality, but first, where did you learn to move like that? You move like Et-Maru.” Ramirez said, sheathing his katana.

“It just...” Methos started.

“Felt right.” Ramirez finished before laughing. “You’ll never cease to amaze me Highlander, never.”

“Willow, are you going to be alright here? I’m going to go back and see what Al says about all this.” Buffy whispered.

“Buffy, you don’t have to whisper, only Adam can see or hear us.” Willow grinned as Buffy blushed from her mistake.

“Ok, sorry, but you’ll be ok?” Buffy asked again, not wanting to leave her friend if she was uncomfortable with the situation.

“I’ll be fine Buffy, really. Nothing can even hurt me here, see?” To prove her point Willow reached down and pushed her hand through a rock on the ground. “All holograms, nothing more.”

“Ok, keep an eye on him and I’ll be back soon.” Buffy grinned as she pressed a few buttons on the handlink and the door opened.

“That’s just weird.” Willow commented as she watched Buffy step through the door and close it. Smiling to herself she moved over to where Methos and Ramirez were sat around a fire with some freshly caught fish cooking on several wooden spikes on the top of the fire and talking about ancient fighting styles. Sitting down beside the fire she found herself wishing for her laptop to she could record all this. “Ziggy?” she asked out loud.

“Yes Miss Rosenberg?” Ziggy voice replied.

“Are you recording all this?” Willow asked softly, not wanting to disturb Adam’s conversation.

“Yes Miss Rosenberg, Standard operating procedure states that all leaps be recorded for future reference in my neural network.”

Smiling to herself, Willow just sat down on the cold floor of the imaging chamber, listening to the conversation and watching them eat their fish...


“Al, you’re not going to believe this.” Buffy grinned as she saw Al talking to someone by the control panel.

“Ah, Miss Summer’s. I’d like you to meet Gooshie; he’s the head programmer here and Project Quantum Leap.” Al said, smiling as she shook his hand then stepped backwards sharply.

“Nice to meat you Miss Summers, The Admiral has just been filling me in on our new leaper, quite the story, an Immortal?” Gooshie said, trying to get his head around the fact that someone could live forever.

“Yeah, real mind bender isn’t it.” Buffy grinned, trying to act casually while stepping as far away from the man and his halitosis as she could.

Al just laughed when he saw what she was doing. “It’s ok; Gooshie here has strong Halitosis, some of the worst I’ve seen. Sometimes I worry that his breath will eat through the console one day.” Al laughed as he saw Buffy breathe a sigh of relief. “How is Doctor Pierson, Adam, Methos, or whatever you want to call him?”

“I’m just sticking with Methos, if that was his first name, seems best to stick with it.” Buffy explained, not really wanting to think about all the names he would have had over the years.

“Agreed, Methos it is.” Gooshie said, changing the details on Ziggy’s forms.

“Right, so how is he? Is his memory all right? After Sam’s first leap he couldn’t even remember his own name, let alone what the project was about.” Al asked, moving away from Gooshie to speak with Buffy privately.

“He’s fine, he knows his name, his history, everything. He’s in there now with another immortal, Ramirez or something. He was Methos’ student a long time ago, apparently he died sometime soon in a fight with someone called the Kurgan, Methos thinks that he’s here to stop Ramirez being killed.” Buffy explained, now actively fanning her face with the handlink trying to remove the smell from her area.

“You get used to it.” Al grinned at Buffy’s face. “Can he do it? I mean, beat this Kurgan?”

“After seeing him train, no doubt, he moved quicker than I do.” Buffy said, quickly clamping her hand over her mouth after realizing what she had said.

“It’s ok, I had a look at you’re training with the Hard Light system last night. A lot faster and stronger than you look, I take it Willow is the same?” Al said, remembering the anomalies found in all three of the group.

“No, Willow’s different.” Buffy said sheepishly.

“Well I wanted to talk to you anyway, you did good with Peterson, I saw the replay of the fight, you disarmed him and took him down with non lethal force in record time, even for a marine.” Al smiled as he watched Buffy blush.

“I just hit him, I didn’t think he’d hit the wall like that.” Buffy said, not use to the abject praise.

“Buffy, from what I saw last night you have enough strength in your punches to go through a steel wall. You could have easily killed him, but you didn’t.” Al paused, picking up a cigar and lighting it. “You stopped him, but weren’t responsible for his death. For that I thank you.”

Buffy just smiled and bounced on the spot for a second. “Oh, he said something...”

“I know,” Al interrupted. “I got the recording and have asked Joe about it already. Apparently this bunch of renegade Watchers...”

“Watchers?” Buffy interrupted.

“Yeah, that’s what they call themselves, they ‘Watch’ immortals, imagine that” Al laughed before taking a pull of his cigar. “Anyway, these renegades want to kill all of the immortals, they believe they’re a menace or some such nonsense.”

Buffy suddenly jumped quickly and grabbed Al’s arm, “Oh, what Ziggy said.” Buffy said, wanting to jump on this train of thought before it left.

“What?” Al said, almost dropping his cigar at Buffy’s jump.

“Ziggy said Doctor Becket had the same anomomoly as Methos.” Buffy said, stumbling over the words.

“Sam? Immortal?” Al said, almost in disbelief, though the signs were there.

“Yeah, maybe this guy was his watcher, and he fixed the accelerator to get rid of Sam just like he did to Methos.” Buffy exclaimed, putting the pieces together.

“Why that no good, rotten, lousy son of a...” Al trailed off, remembering there was a young lady present.

“Who? Sam?” Buffy asked, confused now, she though Sam and Al were friends.

“No, Peterson. I was his friend, oh I’d like two minutes alone with that guy.” Al growled.

“No can do, remember? He’s dead.” Buffy said, now realising where the anger was coming from.

“Yeah, still...” Al said, “So, how’s Willow doing in there?”

“She’s happy, if I know her she’ll be trying to memorise everything she can about the time to write in one of her journals later.” Buffy grinned.

“Hah, Sam did the exact same thing. He used to keep journals about everything, must be a geek thing.” Al grinned.

“Probably.” Buffy laughed.

“BUFFY!” A scream came from the imaging chamber.

“Willow.” Buffy said before running back to the imaging chamber door, cursing when it wouldn’t open fast enough for her.

“He’s here, the Kurgan. Methos knocked Ramirez out on the grass back there and has gone to face him alone. He said something about the rules being only one on one.” Willow babbled, happy Buffy was here now.

“Where are they?” Buffy asked.

“He went that way.” Willow said, pointing up towards the castle.

“Right, come on.” Buffy said before taking off in a flat run up the hill towards the castle, leaving Willow stood by the loch with a small smile on her face.

“Ziggy, centre me on Methos.” Willow said, pressing a few buttons on the handlink before disappearing and reappearing next to Methos just in time for his sword to pass straight through her chest. “Eep!” she squealed and fell over into a wall, disappearing through it.

“Willow?” Buffy said as she approached the castle and saw Willow tumble through one of the walls.

“Faster than running.” Willow grinned as she stood up and dusted herself off.

“What happened? Did you teleport or something?” Buffy asked, worried that Willow was using dark magick again.

“No, I just asked Ziggy to centre me on Methos, they’re in there now fighting, I just got Methos’ sword through me.” Willow said, rubbing her chest to make sure there wasn’t any blood or anything.

“Willow, we’re holograms, nothing can hurt us here.” Buffy said, laughing at her friend.

“It’s still disconcerting, seeing a sword swing through your chest.” Willow defended herself with a pout.

“Come on; let’s see how they’re doing.” Buffy grinned and walked through the castle wall.

“Yeah, it’ll take some time getting used to this.” Willow smiled as she followed Buffy, subconsciously taking a breath as she passed through the wall.

Methos had the Kurgan on the ground, his sword lying a few feet away from them. Blood was dripping from the Kurgans face and chest where Methos’ blade had found its mark.

“You killed a lot of my friends Kurgan.” Methos said, eyeing the man with fury on his face.

“I killed a lot of peoples friends, and lovers, I only wish I had got to your woman first Highlander.” The Kurgan shouted with a growl.

“You never will again, There can be only one.” Methos shouted as he raised his sword high above his head and brought it down sharply, severing the Kurgans head from his body in one smooth stroke.

“Eew.” Willow said as she turned away.

“Sharp,” Buffy grinned, “so what now?”

“Now, the Quickening.” Methos said as he raised his hands above his head, just as the lightning started a blue light passed around him, and energy passed through his body.

“What was...” Buffy trailed off as she found herself sat next to Willow in the now empty, blue imaging chamber. “That?”

“What happened Buffy?” Willow asked, looking around herself at the soft blue room.

“Dunno, what happened Ziggy?” Buffy asked.

“Doctor Pierson has entered the time stream again, it will be impossible to locate him until he leaps into another body.” Ziggy explained.

“He did it, he changed history.” Willow said with a smile, “He saved his friends life.”

“Wow, he changed history.” Buffy said, only now absorbing it all.

“Come on, let’s tell Al.” Willow grinned, pocketing the handlink and walking towards the door.

“Giles!” Buffy exclaimed as the door opened to the control room. Giles was stood there talking to Al.

Buffy just ran over and hugged him, followed shortly by Willow.

“Buffy, Willow, it is good to see you both. Admiral Calavicci has just been telling me about the adventure that you two have had with the young Doctor Pierson.” Giles explained, giving them both a tight hug.

“We changed history Giles, well Methos did, we just helped, actually didn’t really help, just observed but it was so cool. We were back in the fifteen hundreds in Scotland, he was wearing a kilt and there were sword fights. Then when he took this guy’s head there was lighting and explosions then we found ourselves back here.” Willow babbled out, trying to explain everything to Giles in one go.

“Breath Willow.” Al said with a grin. “So Methos was successful then?”

“Yeah, Ziggy said he leapt just as the lightning started.” Buffy smiled.

“Good timing too, we discovered a few years ago that if a leaper is struck by lightning when he’s leaping, the leaper and the observer switch places.” Al explained, not wanting to lose either of the girls like he had lost Sam and Methos.

“Wow, thanks for that. I wonder which one of us would have switched.” Willow said thoughtfully.

“Well hopefully we’ll never find out.” Giles said with a soft smile.

“Where do you think he’ll go next?” Buffy asked Al

“Anywhere, any when... anytime within his own lifetime and with him that’s a long time. He could really change the world for the better.” Al said smiling, as much as Sam had done, Methos could do so much more by the time he had finished.

“And we’ll be there to help.” Willow smiled as Buffy nodded.

“Agreed, I’ll assist in any way I can. Research is my forte so to speak.” Giles smiled thinking about all the things in history Methos could change. “It’s one thing to change things in the past forty or fifty years but Methos has the chance to go back and truly affect history itself. He could actually witness the pyramids being built, or Stonehenge. He could stop the cold war or world war two, he could save hundreds of lives on the titanic, there could be no end to what he could do.” Giles slipped his glasses off and started polishing them, the implications of what was happening finally setting in.

“He’s going to need our help, and Sam’s still out there somewhere. Maybe Methos will run into him somewhere around time and help him come home, help them both come back home.” Al smiled; it would be nice to see Sam again, to have him home. He knew Donna missed him.

“So, research time, what major historical events happened in the past five thousand years Giles?” Willow grinned at Giles look of horror.

“This is going to be fun isn’t it?” Buffy asked Al with a grin on her face.

“Well, it certainly isn’t going to be boring around here anymore.” Al returned her grin and took a puff from his cigar.


Seacouver – Joe’s Bar

“Yeah, he knocked me out and went off to face the Kurgan alone.” Ramirez told Duncan Macleod as he nursed his beer.

“But he’d only been an immortal for, what, ten, maybe fifteen years?” Duncan said sipping his brandy.

“There was something about him that day, reminded me of my teacher, I spoke to him a few years back, he was in a hurry about something, said we’d catch up one day. He’s going by the name of Benjamin Adam’s now.” Ramirez said, downing the rest of his beer.

Duncan just looked at Ramirez with shock. “Doctor Benjamin Adam’s?” he asked, trying to fit the pieces together.

“That’s the one, you know him.” Ramirez asked as he nodded to Joe for a refill.

“Aye, I’ve come across him a few times. He goes by Adam Pierson now, or Methos.” Duncan grinned at the look on Ramirez face

“Why that bloody, no good, filthy...” The shouts and curses echoed through Joe’s bar as Ramirez finally figured out who his teacher really was.




AN: Genesis had begun again, really an introduction piece to Methos leaping, now each chapter will be a new leap, maybe two or three chapters covering a leap.

To answer a few of the questions I know will be coming my way...

1, Methos will not only be interacting with immortal history, he'll be jumping about randomly much like Sam did.

2, Buffy and Willow will be his constant observers, and yes, you will see them interact more with the project and the staff there.

3, Methos might find Sam, I don't know, I haven't decided on that yet

4, Yes, Alia, Zoe and Thames will be making an appearance later on as well, but not for some time.

Any more questions, leave a review...

Hell, you've just read over 17,400 words, leave a review anyway

Hope you liked it, now I have a question for you...

Where would you like to see Methos leap to?

Maybe Berlin 1947 to save a young girl, or the wild west to help a couple get together...

Maybe ancient Egypt to deliver a baby for a pharaoh or China to save someones life when the moguls invade?

We've got 5,000 years of history to play with here people, make your suggestion and I'll probably play with it

M

Leap 2

[FONT=&quot]“Come on Ziggy, Checkmate.” Willow grinned as she moved her rook across the holographic chess board.

“I am afraid you are mistaken Miss Rosenberg.” Ziggy’s soft voice replied as her queen moved to intercept the rook. “By moving my queen to D nine, I have not only blocked your rook, but I have also placed you in checkmate.”

“What?” Willow’s shrill voice echoed throughout her quarters.

“As you can see, I was using the Russian championship move from nineteen forty seven to place you in check; I then just altered the moves to accommodate your rook to place you in checkmate.” Ziggy’s voice was sounding decidedly smug today Willow decided.

“I see...” Willow said after examining the board for a few minutes. “Can we call it quits for tonight; I’ve got to meet Giles down in research to see if we can figure out where Methos might leap next.”

“As you wish Miss Rosenberg, just call for me if you require anything else.” Ziggy said before going quiet.

“Damn computer, damn Russian chess.” Willow grumbled as she made her way to the bathroom to splash some water on her face. Truth was she was really enjoying playing Ziggy, but complaining was part of the game, especially when you lose.

Leaving her quarters she took her regular route down to the research floor, despite knowing that Ziggy could ‘light the way’ for her, as Buffy called it. It was nice knowing she could find her way around the mammoth structure of the project without Ziggy’s help.

“Miss Rosenberg.” Al smiled as he saw her coming round the corner.

“Al, how many times have I told you to call me Willow?” Willow grinned at his choice in clothing today, a bright green shirt with navy blue pants, and a glowing pink star on the left chest of his shirt.

“Not enough?” Al grinned and chuckled before taking a puff of his cigar.

“Any word from Sam or Methos?” Willow asked, always hoping for the best.

“Fraid not, nothing that Ziggy can detect anyway. Sam’s a bit more difficult than Methos to pin down when he leaps in, while Methos is still bouncing someone out, Sam doesn’t need to, he just zips in,” Al flashed his hand across the air to punctuate his sentence. “And then zips back out again. With Methos at least we get someone back in the waiting room.”

“It’s been nearly a week Al; did it take this long for Sam to leap the first time?” Willow asked as they continued walking down towards the research floor.

Al just smirked, as if remembering a particularly enjoyable time. “Yeah, first time Sam leaped though we were too busy partying to realize how long it took. Sometimes it’s an hour, sometimes it’s a week. That’s why the observers have to stay on base at all times, just in case he leaps in.” Al explained, remembering back to when Sam leapt out of Tom Stratton and the party they had before he leapt into Tim Fox

“It’s just annoying, you know, waiting and not knowing what’s going on.” Willow complained, frustration evident in her voice.

“I know kiddo, don’t worry, he’ll be fine. Not much can happen to him when he’s out of the timeline.” Al chuckled as the door to the research area opened.

“Suppose not.” Willow mused, smiling at Al. No matter what her mood was like, Al could always cheer her up. His bubbly personality, not to mention his dress sense was always at odds with the highly decorated admiral he was supposed to be. “Giles.” Willow smiled as she saw Giles sitting at his usual desk, books lay open, strewn around him.

“Willow, any word from Methos yet?” Giles asked, lifting his head up from the book to look at them properly.

“Not yet, Al assures me it’s normal, but I worry, you know.” Willow said, smiling as she took a seat next to the desk. “What you reading?”

“Just some details on pre roman civilizations, With Methos leaping around in his own lifetime, I thought it best to try and catch up on some ancient history. You never know where he might end up next; it could be Rome or Ancient Greece, maybe even Chicago in the fifties.” Giles smiled, closing his books up and placing them on the edge of his desk to be filed away later.

“You know, we’ve loaded Ziggy with all this information now, you could just ask her about it.” Al said, smiling at the large pile of books Giles had been going through.

“I know, I just feel better with the books. Knowledge should be tangible, not just bits or bites or whatever Willow calls them.” Giles smiled, deliberately getting the word wrong, causing Willow to smile and correct him.

“Bytes Giles, and I know you don’t like Ziggy, that’s why we shipped all your books here isn’t it?” Willow grinned, remembering Al’s face when she told him how many books they would be bringing.
[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]“Not to mention the oversight that Ziggy was not programmed with any information regarding the supernatural or immortal lives, if Methos has any interaction with the supernatural world then these books will be our only source of information.” Giles paused thoughtfully, “Though I am surprised in all the time that Doctor Becket has been, ‘leaping’ did you call it?” He continued at Al’s nod. “Yes, that he’s never encountered the supernatural before.”

“Well there was one leap, in London in the seventies, nineteen seventy-five I think, he might have leapt into a vampire, I think, but we never actually found out because the leap only lasted about eight hours.” Al thought back to the guy that they’d had in the waiting room, reminding himself to go over the leap records from that leap with Giles and Willow, to see if they could clear up that little mystery for them. “And what’s wrong with Ziggy?” Al chewed around his unlit cigar, eying Giles carefully for a response.

[/FONT] [FONT=&quot]“It’s not that I don’t like Ziggy, I find her quite... personable. I just don’t like the feeling that it’s watching everything, and knows everything that’s going on here.” Giles protested, cleaning his glasses and smiling at Al.

“I know the feeling, sometimes when I’m in bed with Beth...” Al started only to be cut off by Willow.

“TMI, TMI Al.” Willow shouted, grinning.

“Ok, what I’m saying is that Ziggy may record everything that’s going on here, but she doesn’t spy on our private lives or anything. Sam built her with filters so that she can’t record anything of a private nature, unless it involves the project or you ask for her specifically.”

“That may be, it’s just going to take some getting used to I suppose.” Giles smiled, there wasn’t much he could do about it anyway, and truth be told Ziggy was quite useful in helping him find his way around the complex and locating objects or people.

“Admiral,” Ziggy’s voice came into the room.

“Ziggy, we were just talking about you.” Al grinned.

“I heard, anyway I thought you would like to know that we have a new arrival in the waiting room.” Ziggy’s voice replied.

“Is it Sam or Methos?” Willow asked excitedly.

“I am afraid not Miss Rosenberg, from his Quantum signature I would place his normal time frame at approximately seventy five to eighty AD.” Ziggy replied, almost sounding dismayed herself.

“Ziggy load all information from that era into your databanks, Willow you head to the imaging chamber and I’ll have Ziggy notify Buffy to meat you there. Giles, would you like to join me in the waiting room with our new visitor?” Al grinned, knowing full well that Giles had been dying to actually meet someone from that past and see a ‘leap’ in action.

“I’ll meet you there. Ziggy?” Giles asked, hoping she would reply to him even though he didn’t ask her for anything often.

“Yes Doctor Giles?” Ziggy’s voice came back, helpful as ever.

“Do we know where the man came from? I mean which city or area?” Giles asked, trying to think what happened during that time in history.

“Negative Doctor Giles, I am running a scan on the time line now though, I have however narrowed the search down to somewhere off the coast of Italy during the year seventy nine AD.”

“Seventy nine AD?” Giles asked, trying to think what happened in that timeframe near Italy. “Oh, bloody hell, Willow, get to Methos immediately and warn him to get off the island.”

“What is it? Where is he Giles?” Al asked, now standing up and quickly making his way to the doors.

“If I’m right, he’s in Pompeii.” Giles said gravely, grabbing a few books before joining Al at the doors while Willow had run off ahead.

“Ziggy, find Buffy and tell her to get to the imaging chamber immediately.” Al barked while grabbing a few of Giles’ books and running for the elevator.

“Miss Summers is already on her way to the imaging chamber from the gym Admiral, she will arrive shortly after Miss Rosenberg does.” Ziggy informed them as the doors to the elevator opened.

“Ah, thank you Ziggy.” Giles said when the elevator doors closed.

“No need for your thanks Doctor Giles, but I appreciate them as always.” Ziggy went quiet as the elevator came to a stop and the doors opened into the control room as Willow made her way into the imaging chamber. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]
“Bloody hell, what now?” Methos said as he tried to get his bearings.

“Pardon?” A woman by his side asked softly, he looked down and he was holding her by her wrist.

“Nothing.” Methos said, gingerly letting go of her and looking around the area for any clues as to where he was.

It was Greek, or Minoan, with wall paintings and murals on all of the houses down the street. Looking up there was a large mountain not far from the village with smoke bellowing out the top of it.

“Please, not Pompeii or Thera.” Methos begged anyone who would listen, raising his eyes to the sky. “Please?” His eyes staring at the heavens, hoping for an answer.

“Pompeii is down the hill, on the other side of the mountain sir.” The woman said, in flawless English.

“Other side?” Methos said, taking a double take at the mountain... then this was... he was cut off from his musings as he saw the imaging chamber door open and Willow stepped through it. “Excuse me.” He smiled at the woman and moved over to a water flow by the side of the road and cupped his hands in it before raising them to his lips.

“Willow, thank god.” He said, smiling at her as he bathed his face.

“Hi Methos, wow, do you know where you are? This is amazing.” Willow smiled at him before looking around and taking the sights in.

“Herculaneum, and not too long before the eruption I’m guessing from the smoke coming out of... what’s it called now, damnit, why can’t I remember.” Methos frowned as he tried to remember this bit of information from his past.

“Vesuvius,” Willow filled in for him, smiling to try and reassure him. “Al said this might happen, he calls it Swiss cheesing. You’ll lose parts of your memory from leap to leap, sometimes remembering things and sometimes forgetting them.”

“Ok, whatever. How do I get off this place then? I mean, how long until it blows?” Methos asked, looking around nervously.

“The eruption started at one fourteen PM on August twenty fourth according to Ziggy, it’s the twenty third today so you’ve got a bit of time here.” Willow said, smiling at the obvious relief of Methos’ face.

“So? What does that jumped up calculator say I’m here to do?” Methos asked, now getting agitated, he was supposed to leap forwards, not back. He wanted to get back to his own time, not go back and be buried with the rest of this city.

“Ziggy’s having problems making a prediction as there weren’t many records still around from this time, the eruption completely destroyed the city, I’d say your best bet was to try and get as many people out onto the ships as you can, you’ll have a better chance of surviving there than on land.” Willow said, reading the data off the handlink.

“Ok, save the population of a small city. Not like she’s asking me to save thousands of people in a day or anything!” Methos shouted at Willow, causing her to take a step back nervously.

“Don’t you shout at Willow, it’s not her fault you’re here.” Buffy shouted from the imaging chamber door as she stepped through.

“I know, I’m sorry Willow.” Methos said sheepishly as he smiled up at her. “So, I’ve got a day to get everyone in the city onto boats?”

“That’s about the size of it.” Buffy said, looking around. “Wow, so this is what Italy looked like thousands of years ago.”

“Yeah, it’s amazing isn’t it?” Willow said, smiling at Buffy as she wandered over to a painting on one of the walls.

“Wow, nifty paintings.” Buffy said, admiring the artwork.

“It’s the story of Herakles, or Hercules if you prefer. Legend says he built this town on the site where he killed Cacus.” Methos said, wandering over to the painting himself.

“Cool, hey, who’s the woman?” Buffy asked, looking over at Methos and the woman who had followed him over.

“Sorry,” Methos grinned sheepishly and looked over at her coughing quietly to cover up his apology. “I was just admiring the painting.”

“Muriel.” She said, again in perfect English.

“Hey, she’s speaking English; shouldn’t she be speaking Italian or something?” Buffy said, trying to figure it all out.

“Latin, and she is, if you look at her lips. It seems the leap translates it for us, or for Methos and Ziggy translates it for us, or something.” Willow said, trying to wrap her mind around the fact that she was in Herculaneum just hours before the town gets destroyed.

Methos just smiled at the girls antics, trying to keep his mind focused on the woman in front of him. She was dark skinned, an olive complexion he thought to himself, wearing a light brown toga with a white shawl. On top of her dark brown hair was a roughly made silver circlet, with blue and green gems pinned in. She was quite beautiful he thought, reminding him of his fortieth, or forty first wife.

“Shall we go,” she said, nodding down towards the beach. “Father will be waiting for the fish tonight. If we hurry we can make the market as well.”

“Just play along for the minute, Giles and Al are talking to the man you replaced, I’ll go back and see if I can get any information about him.” Willow said, smiling before opening the door to the imaging chamber and walking out.

“I’ll hang around, just in case you need something.” Buffy said, dazzling him with her best smile.

“Thanks,” Methos smirked sarcastically, before heading off down to the beach. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]
“Al, how’s it going?” Willow said as she walked back into the control room.

“Beeks is in there with him now,” Al jabbed his cigar over his shoulder towards the waiting room door before continuing, “his name is Julius Herodion, an apothecary in Herculaneum. He’s married to Julia. Heh, Julius and Julia.” Al grinned at the names. “And they have two children. That’s about all we can get from him, he’s convinced Giles is an Oracle or something and I’m a messenger of Mercury, He’s a wackjob.” Al grinned at his assessment before lighting up a cigar.

“Maybe not, Oracles were people of knowledge back then, so it does fit for Giles. I’m not sure how he got a messenger of Mercury for you though, maybe Narcissus, but not Mercury.” Willow grinned as Giles chuckled in the corner.

“Hah, Hah.” Al laughed dryly. “Anyway, how’s Methos holding up?”

“He’s doing ok, a little Swiss cheesed but he’ll be fine. He’s just taking his wife, I guess, fishing for the day before heading to the market. I said I’d try and find out anything about what he’s supposed to do before heading back.” Willow smiled, looking up towards Ziggy’s neural net. “Ziggy, any more information about the leap yet?”

“Affirmative Miss Rosenberg, according to history books, both Julius and Julia Herodion survived the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, they were fishing of the coast when the eruption occurred, however both their children died in the eruption.” Ziggy reported before going silent again.

“Ok, so he’s there to save the children then?” Willow asked.

“I do not have enough data to tell you about the children’s possible future, only that Julia Herodion died two days after the eruption by drowning herself. The records report that she took her own life after finding out the fate of her children.”

“Ok, save the children and you save the wife.” Willow said, trying to get all the facts straight before heading back to the imaging chamber.

“That would be the most obvious course of action Miss Rosenberg.” Ziggy said as she opened the door to the imaging chamber.

“Thanks Ziggy.” Willow grinned as she stepped through to see Methos on a boat just about to cast off, with Buffy quite happily walking around the boat with the illusion that she was walking on water.

“Buffy!” Willow said, before looking down and realizing that she too was stood on ‘water’. “Ok, that’s weird.”

“Fun though.” Buffy grinned as she watched Methos cast the boat off and his wife wave him goodbye before walking off down the beach to the market.

“Where’s she going? I thought she was going fishing with you?” Willow asked, walking through the edge of the boat and standing next to Methos.

“I told her to go to the market on her own, that I’d be fine fishing. It’s not as if I haven’t done this before.” Methos grinned as he pulled the sail up and caught a slipstream of wind.

“Ok, fishing, I’m guessing not with a rod though?” Buffy asked, walking through the boat side to stand next to Willow.

“Nope, that wasn’t around until the early eighteen hundreds, but people were using the general method as far back as ancient Egypt.” Methos grinned, watching Willow’s mouth drop open as the realization that he would have been there set in.

“Ok, so what did they use here then?” Buffy asked, eying the materials around the boat.

“Net’s and spears.” Methos smiled, picking up one of the spears and hefting it in his hand. “Good weight too.”

“Anyway, Ziggy found out that originally both you and your wife survived the eruption, but your children didn’t. You both survived by being at sea when it happened, but your children were still at home, I’m guessing they died when the volcano destroyed the town, maybe shortly before from the smoke. Julia, that’s your wife, died shortly after when she killed herself after finding out about her children.” Willow said, trying to break it to Methos as easily as possible.

“Ok, so we find the children and take them out to sea with us as well, what about the rest of the town?” Methos said, eying the town on the mountain side.

“I don’t know, Ziggy’s running scenarios as fast as she can to see if there’s any way to save the entire town but so far everything’s coming up short.” Willow said sadly, now looking at the mountain side herself.

“Get back there and see if you can help Ziggy ok? I’m going to finish the fishing quickly and get back to town, see if I can convince as many people as I can to leave the village.” Methos said, smiling as she opened the imaging chamber door.

“What about me? Is there anything I can do?” Buffy said, not really liking the feeling of being useless.

“You can help me fish.” Methos said with a grin. “Can Ziggy locate any schools of fish around here?”

“One second.” Buffy grinned, pressing a few buttons on the handlink. “Yep, fifty meters or so to the port side, whatever that means.”

“See, useful as ever.” Methos said, turning to Buffy and flashing her one of his grins.

“Yeah yeah, I’m just used to being able to actually do something, not just sit around and watch. Just feels weird, you know?” Buffy said, eying the boat carefully as Methos pulled the rudder and sailed in the direction he’d been told.

“Think of it this way Buffy, we can to change history, actually save lives, maybe hundreds of people. If you can help with that, no matter how you help, isn’t it worth doing?” Methos asked, sitting down by the rudder and pulling the sail taught.

“I guess.” Buffy said, shrugging her shoulders. “I just don’t like feeling so helpless.”

“Hey, you’re the ones keeping me grounded in the present, or the future, whatever. If it wasn’t for you and Willow I’d be stuck back here with no help whatsoever.” Methos said, the full realization of how much he depended on them setting in now.

“Hey, yeah, so we’re the watchers now and you’re the...” Buffy frowned, trying to think of a word to sum up what Methos was doing.

“I’m the leaper.” Methos said, thinking about what the future might hold for him.

“Yeah.” Buffy said smiling as Methos pulled the sail down and stopped the boat.

“So, any ideas on how you’re going to convince the town to leave?” Buffy asked, not wanting to think about the hundreds of people that would die if they failed.

“Not really, I could just set a fire or something on the mountain side, that might force them to leave the town” Methos said, throwing the net overboard.

“Maybe.” Buffy nodded in approval.

“Besides, it’s not like anyone’s going to remember this is it?” Methos said grinning as he pulled the net back in and pulled the fish out of it, laying them on the boat floor before recasting the net.

“I don’t know, you’d be better asking Willow how time works... it gives me a headache just thinking about it.” Buffy said, giving an exaggerated shudder.

“Tell me about it,” Methos said, looking to the horizon. “By this time I’m somewhere in the middle of Russia, maybe Switzerland.”

“Wow, so there are two of you running about the world?” Buffy said, now quite happy to find out some more about the ancient immortal.

“Yep, guess by this time I’m with my fifty-second, or fifty-third wife.” Methos grinned at the look on Buffy’s face.

“Fifty second wife? How many times have you been married?” Buffy gaped, she had enough trouble keeping one relationship down.

“Sixty eight times, I was in love with a woman, shortly before you came to see me at Joe’s...” Methos frowned, letting the thought trail off.

“What happened?” Buffy asked, seeing the sadness in his eyes.

“I... I can’t remember... Alex... no, Alexa. That was her name.” Methos finally said, racking his brain for this important fact. “Damnit, why can’t I remember?”

“Don’t push it, Al said this happened to Sam when he leaped. It’ll come back to you.” Buffy smiled, trying to reassure him. “Besides, your net’s about to go.”

“What?” Methos said, spinning his head round to see the net being pulled overboard he lunged over to it and grabbed hold of the net, bracing his feat against the side of the boat he pulled in back on board, smiling when he saw the amount of fish caught in the net. “Think that’s enough?” He grinned, running his wet fingers through his hair.

“I think that will do fine.” Buffy laughed, smiling at Methos lying there, surrounded by fish in his soggy robes.

“Come on, let’s set sail back for the town.” Methos laughed, pulling the sail back up before returning to the rudder. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]
“So, how’s it going Ziggy?” Willow asked, placing the handlink on the control board.

“All scenarios are still only twenty eight percent effective at best Miss Rosenberg. I feel the best option would be to convince the villagers that the gods were angry with them and the volcano was a sign from them, that would convince the most villagers to leave the town, however there are not enough boats in the area to carry all the inhabitants of the town to safety, I believe priority must go to Doctor Pierson and his family.” Ziggy reported.

“What about the rest of the town? Isn’t there anything we can do to help them?” Willow asked, not liking the option of leaving hundreds of people to die from volcanic ash and toxic smoke.

“I do not believe so Miss Rosenberg, the inhabitants of the village are having a festival tonight on the beach, I believe this would be the best time for Doctor Pierson to tell everyone about the volcano.”

“What about the panic it would cause?” Willow asked, trying not to think about what would happen if everyone started stampeding towards the boats in the middle of a festival.

“The ensuing panic would allow Doctor Pierson and his family to sail to safety, followed by the people who made it to the remaining boats. The foremost concern must be for Doctor Pierson’s family, if he fails in this endeavour he would be stuck in the past permanently.” Ziggy reported, her last words sounding grave.

Willow didn’t say anything to that, she just nodded and walked towards the waiting room to see Al and Giles.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]

“Julius.” A man on the beach shouted as Methos jumped out of the boat and started pulling it up to the beach. “How was the fishing today?”

“Good, good.” Methos grinned, looking at Buffy with a quizzical eye then frowning as he saw her shrug in response.

“Good, the God’s must be pleased with you; you have enough fish here for the festival tonight and for tomorrow as well. You have done well my son.” The man said, laughing before pulling Methos in to a tight embrace.

“Ah, must be your father.” Buffy grinned then shrugged again as she saw Methos’ ‘Duh’ face aimed at her.

“Yes, the God’s were gracious indeed father, the fish swam close and I was able to catch quite the bounty.” Methos smiled, releasing the man from the hug. “The festival tonight... uh... do you believe the God’s will be watching?”

“The God’s are always watching my son, see, they have kept the mountain smoking on their honour.” The man said, pointing towards the volcano.

“Wow is he mistaken.” Buffy said as Methos started unloading the fish into the buckets.

“I can’t help but feel nervous about the mountain father; it should not be smoking like that.” Methos said carefully, not wanting to offend the man or his God’s.

“Nonsense, we are happy people. We pray to the Gods and have shrines for them, the God’s will protect us Julius, just as they gave you children. They will not turn their backs on us now.” The man smiled, picking up two of the buckets and starting to walk towards the town.

“If you only knew.” Methos muttered, picking up the remaining buckets and following the man. “Buffy, what about this festival tonight? Could we use it as a distraction to get everyone into the boats?”

“I don’t know, look at them.” Buffy said, waving to the boats on the beach. “Half of them don’t look as if their fit to go fishing in, look that one’s got a hole in the side. I don’t think we’ve got enough boats here for half of the people in the town.”

“I know.” Methos said, frowning.

“Hey.” Willow said, opening the imaging chamber door and stepping through.

“Hey Wills.” Buffy smiled as Willow walked over to them. “Any news?”

“Ziggy’s still coming up short on ideas on how to rescue the town, she feels you’re best option would be to tell everyone tonight at the festival and then slip away in the panic.” Willow said, obviously uncomfortable with the idea.

“What about the people left behind?” Methos asked.

“She say’s priority must go to you and your family,” Willow grimaced at the look Methos gave her, she didn’t want to tell him the rest but the look he gave her made her squirm. “If you don’t get them out you could be stuck here.” She paused, watching Methos as he blew out a breath and sagged his shoulders as the thought sunk in. [/FONT]