DISCLAIMER: All things Buffy are the creation and property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy Productions, and so forth. All things non-Buffy are the creation and property of many other individuals and corporate entities.

This particular story is the creation of Robert A. Black (that's me). Feel free to drop me a line and let me know what you think of my work. Good or bad, I'd like to hear it.

TIME CONTEXT: This story takes place between the Buffy episodes, "Nightmares" and "Invisible Girl."

Confused? Refer to the Readers' Guide at the end of the chapter for hints and explanations.

"Well, this certainly gives the old place a country touch."

Buffy and her assorted companions had finally reached the graveyard. The only problem was that the graveyard was no longer there. The motley group stood on the path that ran past its edge, looking over the low wall that surrounded it. They could see nothing but row upon row of cornstalks, stretching over the entire field.

"I take it you weren't expecting to harvest crops tonight," said Riker as he stood at Buffy's side.

"Believe me," said Buffy, "the last harvest they tried around here was something completely different."

"This is stupid," said Ace. "Who looks for vampires in the middle of a cornfield?"

"It wasn't a cornfield before," Buffy replied. "Maybe the graveyard's still here. We just can't see the headstones because of the plants."

Kimberly hopped onto the wall. "We'll never know standing here," she said. Looking at Xander, she asked, "Are you coming?"

Buffy turned to look at Xander herself, and noticed that he was a shade paler. He also was standing back from the wall instead of leaping heroically to Kimberly's side. "Sure, sure," he said unconvincingly. "I'll be right there."

Kimberly hopped off the wall and ventured into the field. Ace, Riker, Garak and Harry followed, but Buffy stayed back, watching her friend.

"Something wrong, Xander?" she asked.

"No, nothing," he replied, even less convincingly. "What could be wrong?"

One look from Buffy told Xander she didn't buy a word of what he was saying. "I know this'll sound silly," he said at last, "but... I'm afraid of cornfields, okay?"

"What?" Buffy asked.

"It's an old story," Xander continued. "I had a bad experience in a cornfield once, and now they just really creep me."

"You can face vampires, demons and witches, but not rows of corn?" said Buffy.

"Sure, go on and rub my face in it," said Xander.

"Later," said Buffy. "Right now, we've got other things to do." She held out a hand to him. "Come on. If I can protect you from the undead, I can protect you from vegetation."

Xander looked at her for a moment, then stepped forward and leaped onto the wall. Buffy joined him.

"Just don't tell Kimberly about this, all right?" Xander said.

"My lips are sealed."

They stepped off the wall and went into the graveyard-turned-cornfield together. They hadn't gone very far before they heard a voice ringing through the crops.

"Buffy! Xander!" Kimberly called. "Over here!"

Buffy looked around, trying to figure out where Kimberly's voice was coming from. Xander located her first, which did not surprise Buffy all that much.

They hurried though the cornstalks and found Kimberly crouching beside two children, a boy and a girl who both looked around nine or ten years old. The girl had a tomboyish appearance, sporting a ponytail and wearing a dust-colored shirt and pair of overalls under an oversized dark blue jacket. The curly-haired boy looked slightly younger and much more fragile. He looked around at the cornstalks with a wild-eyed stare that gave Buffy the wiggins.

"Who's this?" said Buffy as she and Xander arrived.

"I don't know," said Kimberly. "I just found them here."

"My name's True Danzinger," said the girl. "This is Uly. Ulysses Adair." She said the name as if they should all recognize it.

Xander knelt beside the boy and put a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, bud," he said. "What are you doing out here? Did you get lost?"

Uly looked at Xander with the same wild-eyed stare he had given the cornstalks. He said nothing, but abruptly opened his mouth and began to make high-pitched trilling sounds. Xander looked at his two companions in confusion.

"He's been doing that ever since I found them," said Kimberly.

"He's looking for the Terrians," said True.

"The who?" asked Kimberly.

"The Terrians," True repeated, as if that explained everything. "The beings who live here. You know, they come up out of the ground. Uly's bonded with them."

"He has?" said Buffy suspiciously. True's description of these beings sounded too familiar for comfort. "These 'Terrians' don't suck people's blood, do they?"

"What?" said True. Uly trilled again. Buffy was really beginning to be annoyed by the sound.

True looked alarmed. "Please, you've got to help us. We can't find the way back to our camp."

"I think getting back is going to be a little harder than you thought," said Buffy.

"Yeah," Xander agreed. "For starters, what planet is this camp on?"

"G-889, of course," said True. "You know, we're part of the Eden project. My Dad was on the crew that got us here."

"Jeepers," said Kimberly. "This may sound really weird, but you're on Earth now."

"Don't be silly," said True. "Earth doesn't look like this place. I've seen it in VR." Uly trilled again, apparently in agreement.

"Well, that's where things get a little complicated," Buffy began. She tried to think of a way to explain a multiversal interface - something she barely understood herself - to a ten-year-old, but True was not willing to wait.

"Please, you've got to help us!" True cried, becoming hysterical. "We have to find our camp!"

"I know! I know!" Buffy shouted back. "Give us a minute, okay?"

True began sobbing, and Kimberly tried to comfort her. Buffy's mind raced as she tried to think of what to do next. Her thoughts were interrupted by more shouting from another part of the cornfield.

"Oi!" cried Ace. "Over this way!"

Buffy hurried toward the sound, with Xander close behind her. Kimberly followed with the two children. They reached Ace and found her surrounded by three teenage boys. Riker arrived as well, and gasped at the sight of one of the boys.

"Wesley?" said Riker. "Wesley Crusher?"

"Hello, Commander," said Wesley. "When did you grow that beard?"

"When did you get young again?" said Riker. "You look like you did right after you came on board the Enterprise."

"I did just come on board the Enterprise," Wesley replied. "How did we get here?"

"It's obvious, really," said another of the boys as he stepped in. "You've been pulled here from different points in time. I've done a lot of time-travel myself, so I understand it pretty well."

"Oh, please," said the third boy, the only blonde-haired one of the three, and apparently the moodiest as well. "Do you want a gold star for that or something?"

The second boy looked puzzled. "I already have one," he said, pointing out a large star-shaped pin attached to his olive, yellow and red outfit. "It's a badge for mathematical excellence. The Doctor always said..."

"The Doctor?" cried Ace. "You know him? Which one?"

"Two of them," the second boy replied. "The one with the scarf and the one with the celery. Is he here?"

"The one with the scarf is," said Ace. "So's my Doctor. I'm Ace."

"I'm Adric," said the boy. "If there are two Doctors here, they must need our help. Where are they?"

"Now, wait just a minute," said Riker. "I think I've had about enough of all these teenagers charging into the thick of things. I've gone along with Buffy and Xander because they live here and seem to know about what's going on, but now I'm drawing the line. Especially for you, Wes. I know what your future is, and I'm not going to jeopardize it."

"But, Commander...," Wesley started to whine.

"That's adults for you," said the third boy. "Just wait a little while, and then they'll need us again. It's like on the SeaQuest. I'm there on the Bridge, minding my own business, when one of the officers comes along and says, 'Lucas, why don't you go...'"

"At least they let you on the Bridge," said Wesley. "They always want me to save the ship from Engineering or someplace like that."

"You can do a lot from Engineering," Lucas replied. "There was this one time when I had to save the ship by..."

Buffy turned away from the conversation at that point. Xander saw her and stepped away from the others as well.

"Something wrong, Buff?" Xander asked.

"This isn't getting us anywhere," Buffy said, her voice tinged with frustration. "We haven't found the vampires, and we haven't found whoever brought all these people here. Besides, something about those boys is bothering me. I don't think one of them's exactly human."

"That would be me," said Adric as he and Ace joined the discussion. "I'm an Alzarian."

"Oh," said Buffy. "I was thinking of that Wesley guy, actually."

Kimberly joined the group as well, bringing True and Uly along with her. "Buffy," she said, "we've got to do something about these kids, before..."

Buffy again heard voices in the distance. She turned away from Kimberly for a moment, then turned back and said, "Before what? Before more show up?"

"Hey, guys! I think I've found something!"

This time it was Harry Kim calling across the rows of cornstalks. Buffy again took off at a run, leaving her rapidly growing band of followers to catch up.

She reached Harry and stopped dead at the sight of what he had found. Five more children were among the cornstalks, walking around in a circle with their hands joined in the middle. They all chanted in unison as they walked.

"What a charming verse," said Garak as he joined Buffy and Harry. "Does anyone know what it means?"

"Maybe we should ask them," said Buffy. The children had finished their ritual and were now approaching the three vampire hunters. A red-haired boy who was much taller than the others stood out in front.

"Where are we?" he asked. "How did we get here? What did you do to keep our friend from answering us?"

"You're in a cornfield," said Garak. "We don't know how you got here, and we don't even know who your 'friend' is."

"We were going to Marcos Twelve," said an Asian boy in the group. "Our friend wants us to go there."

"Marcos Twelve?" said Harry. "What's so important about there?"

"It's where our friend wants us to go," said a black boy in the group.

"Well, I'm sorry," said Buffy, "but right now we can't help anybody go anywhere."

"You will take us to Marcos Twelve!" shouted the only girl in the group. "You will! You will! You will!"

The girl launched herself at Buffy, waving her fists in the air. Buffy caught the girl and held her still. By this time, Xander and the others were arriving on the scene. Buffy looked over at True Danzinger. "Friend of yours?" she asked, indicating the girl in her arms.

The taller boy stepped up and pulled the girl away from Buffy. "Our friend told us to go to Marcos Twelve," he said, "and that's where we're going to go."

The taller boy abruptly glared at them with an evil stare and began shaking his fist in the air, as if he was pounding on some invisible surface. The other four children began doing the same thing. They continued that way for almost a minute before the taller boy stopped them all.

"Well?" he said.

"Well what?" said Buffy. "Are we supposed to be impressed by your coordination?"

"You're supposed to take us to Marcos Twelve," said the last member of the group, a small boy with a face covered in freckles. "If you don't, your own worst fears will force you to obey us."

"We're stuck in a cornfield with some of the most annoying kids in the cosmos," said Xander. "Our worst fears can't get much worse than that."

"This is ridiculous!" cried Buffy. "We're supposed to be looking for vampires. Did they throw all these kids at us just to slow us down?"

"Maybe the vampires didn't come this way after all," Kimberly suggested. "I mean, this doesn't look like a graveyard any more."

"They're probably back underground by now," Buffy said wearily. "If we can't find where they went down, we'll never be able to catch them."

Uly Adair stepped away from Kimberly and took Buffy by the hand. Buffy expected him to start that awful trilling again, but instead he said, "Why didn't you just say so?"

Buffy was so surprised to hear the boy speaking actual words that she didn't have time to react. Uly make an exceptionally loud trilling noise, and suddenly the two of them sank into the ground. To Buffy's amazement, the earth whizzed past her and through her until she found herself standing in an underground tunnel. Better still, her senses told her that vampires had been there recently.

"How... how did you do that?" she asked the boy.

"Didn't you hear what True said?" Uly replied. "The Terrians showed me when I bonded with them."

"Yeah, right," said Buffy. "What about the other people who were with me? Can you bring them down here, too?"

"Are you going to find the people who can send us home?" the boy asked.

"I hope so."

"Then I'll bring your friends down," Uly promised. "This place is okay, but I've got to get back to my Mom. Besides, True's going to drive me crazy if she doesn't shut up."

"I hear you," Buffy replied. Maybe this kid wasn't so bad after all.

***

Willow couldn't tell how long she and her companions spent inside the mysterious light that had whisked them from the Rangers' Command Center. It seemed longer than when the light put them into the Command Center in the first place, but she didn't know how much longer.

Finally, Willow felt a floor beneath her feet again. Her relief was short-lived, though, as she realized they could be arriving anywhere, into any situation. She strained to look around at her surroundings as the light faded.

They were in another Command Center of some sort, but this one was different. The entire room almost seemed alive. The various consoles and controls had an organic look to them, and the walls seemed to pulse with energy. There was something else about the room that seemed odd to Willow, but she couldn't put her finger on what it was.

"Hmm," said Marcus. "This is interesting. Whoever designed this place has seen Vorlon technology before."

"Who's Vorlon?" said Leela. "Is he a kinsman of that giant head we saw?"

"Certainly not," Marcus replied.

"There's something else about this place," said Bashir. "The gravity doesn't feel completely natural, does it?"

"What do you mean?" asked Mulder.

"I mean we may have just traveled a great distance," Bashir replied. "I just wish we had a viewport or a screen that would let us see out."

As if the room had heard Bashir's request, a panel on the wall suddenly transformed itself into a large viewscreen. Willow looked at the display and saw a field of stars, all rushing past them at various speeds. One thing was certain. They were not in Sunnydale any more.

She turned away from the screen, suddenly feeling ill. The room still didn't feel like it was moving, but Willow could swear she was seasick. The enormity of what she had done was almost overwhelming. How would they get home again from the middle of outer space? She found herself wishing she had never picked up the wristwatch in the first place.

A door opened at the back of the room, and Willow looked up just in time to see a tall woman enter. She was dressed entirely in a bronze-colored mesh-like outfit, with a matching helmet. The metallic tint of the woman's skin and the mechanical hitch in her walk told Willow that this was not a human being.

The mechanical woman seemed unaware of their presence for a few moments, until she finally looked up and found Willow staring at her. She stared back curiously, then said, "You seem fascinated by my appearance. Has there been a malfunction in my facial servo motors?"

"What?" said Willow. "No, no - I've just never seen anyone like you before."

"Well, since I have never seen anyone like you either, we would appear to be starting our association on an equal footing." The woman paused for a moment, then, as if the thought was just occurring to her, added, "By the way - exactly who are you?"

"Um, I'm Willow. Willow Rosenberg."

"Hello, Willow Willow Rosenberg," said the woman. "I am Thelma. That stands for Technological Human Emulating Machine."

"You mean you're a robot," said Willow.

"I suppose I am," said Thelma, "but I see no reason to use such insulting language."

"Thelma," said Marcus as the rest of Willow's group joined the conversation. "Would you mind telling us where we are and how we got here?"

Thelma considered the question. "No and yes," she said.

"I beg your pardon?" said Marcus.

"No, I would not mind telling you where you are. You are on the starship Christa. But yes, I would mind telling you how you got here, because I do not know the answer to that question."

Before the group could ask Thelma anything else, there was a commotion over by one of the walls. Several machines began running, and presently three people dropped into the room from a set of tubes that were mounted into the wall.

"Thelma, what's going on?" said a black teenage boy who appeared to be the leader of the trio. "Who are these people?"

"I was attempting to acquire that information when you arrived, Harlan," said Thelma.

"All you had to do was ask," said Bashir. "Thelma already met Willow. I'm Julian Bashir, and these people are Marcus Cole, Fox Mulder, Leela and Gabrielle."

"We're not here to take over your ship or anything," Willow added quickly. "We just showed up by mistake."

"I'm Harlan Band," said Harlan. "Captain Band to you."

The second member of the trio, a teenage boy with long, shaggy hair and oversized ears, stepped forward as well. "Harlan, you know that never works," he said.

Harlan laughed nervously. "You'll have to forgive my First Officer, Mister Radu. He's a bit shy about these things."

"We're really both students here," said Radu. "So's Catalina," he added, pointing out the trio's third member, a young teenage girl whose hair was colored in a rainbow of concentric rings.

"Radu, what are you doing?" said Harlan. "How are we supposed to impress these people if we just come out and tell them we're students? We still don't know if we can trust them."

"I know we can trust them," said Catalina. "That man there," she added, pointing. "Mister Mulder. There's just something about him that tells me he won't hurt us."

"Me?" said Mulder. "What do you know about me?"

"I'm not sure," said Catalina. "It's just a feeling I have. Besides, Suzee says Marcus is cute."

"Who?" asked Marcus.

Before Catalina could reply, she turned to the space next to her and started shouting into thin air. "Well, if you didn't want me to say anything, why did you say something? Just because we can talk across dimensions, that doesn't mean I can read your mind."

As Catalina continued to argue with nothing, two more children emerged from the tubes in the wall. They were younger than Harlan, Radu and Catalina. One was a brown-skinned boy with a wishbone-shaped set of antennae on his forehead. The other was a red-skinned bald girl.

"Are Catalina and Suzee fighting again?" the girl asked.

"Stay out of this, Rosie," said Catalina. "You weren't any help last time, so just leave us alone."

"Does Catalina do this often?" Bashir asked Harlan. "Because if I had my medkit with me, I could probably cure her condition."

"Who are these people?" asked the boy who had just arrived.

"Not now, Bova," said Harlan. "We'll tell you later."

"Fine," said Bova glumly. "I was already coming to tell you that the food dispenser's only giving us fish heads again, and now you're not going to tell me who these weird people are. It's the story of my life."

By now, Willow had retreated from the center of activity a bit. The various consoles fascinated her, although this time she was careful not to touch anything. She was thoroughly absorbed in one of the panels when a multi-colored flash of lights interrupted her. She looked up in horror. The spandex-clad Rangers had found them.

"So!" shouted the Red Ranger in the same fashion as before. "Thought you could get away from us, did you?"

The rest of the group, Willow's companions and Christa crew members alike, turned to face the Rangers. "How did you find us?" Gabrielle asked the Rangers.

"Ha!" shouted the Green Ranger. "Did you think you could use our own communicator to get away? Zordon let you go, so we could follow you back to your Command Post."

"This isn't their Command Post!" Harlan shouted back. "This is our Command Post. And we don't appreciate you interrupting when we're in the middle of something."

"Oh, yeah?" the Black Ranger shouted back. "What are you going to do about it?"

Please, please don't answer that question, Willow thought to herself. It was no use, though. Harlan and the Black Ranger hurled themselves at each other ferociously. The rest of the people in the room followed their lead almost instantly. Battle was joined again.

Willow crouched low to the floor, trying to make her way over to her companions as Rangers somersaulted through the air above her head. With some effort, she managed to reach Gabrielle and Leela, who were busy defending the younger students from any Rangers who might come their way.

"Who are these people?" asked Rosie. "What do they want?"

"We kind of broke into their Command Center before we came here," Willow explained. "They weren't as understanding about it as you guys were."

"We've got to find another way to get out of here," said Gabrielle. "If they can follow that thing you used before, we can't use it again."

"What about the jump tubes?" Bova suggested.

"You mean those things in the wall?" asked Willow. Rosie nodded, so Willow then said, "We need to distract the Rangers long enough for us all to get there."

"I'll take care of that," said Catalina. "Hold your ears!"

She stood and walked over to the ongoing battle. Taking a deep breath, the rainbow-haired girl opened her mouth and began screaming in a high, piercing tone that threatened to make Willow's ears bleed. Soon Willow's teeth began to rattle, and her eyes told her the whole room was shaking.

Catalina's scream went on for an inhumanly long period of time, then finally stopped. Willow looked up and saw that everyone who had been in Catalina's path was now on the floor, out of commission to one degree or another.

"Grab them!" shouted Catalina. "We'll hold those guys off."

Willow, Gabrielle and Leela scrambled into the battle zone, helping Marcus, Mulder and Bashir to their feet. They headed for the jump tubes, just as the Rangers and the Christa crew members began to recover as well.

Catalina met them at the wall and began activating the jump tube controls. Willow looked back and saw that the fight was on again. Even the smaller children were doing their part, with Rosie blasting Rangers with some kind of heat beam while Bova zapped them with electric shocks.

Gabrielle and Leela piled the three men into the jump tubes, then turned to help Willow in as well. Willow didn't need to be helped. She leaped in by herself and slid down the dark tunnel.

As she accelerated away from the Command Post, though, she couldn't help hearing Catalina's voice. "What are you talking about, Suzee?" the girl was saying. "The jump tube controls have never done that before."

This, thought Willow, does not sound good.