Humanity
by Espresso Rabbit

Chapter four
The vice-principal—Mr. Price, Buffy reminded herself—puffed up arrogantly. “And our AP Chem class should be starting soon. The very best and brightest.”
“Great. Should be fun.” Buffy was seriously starting to get annoyed with the guy. He was a bit of a jerk, really. She couldn’t help but be reminded of Snyder. He was so interested in looking good, he was making an actual attempt at squashing all of the individuality out of the school.
Plus, there was the fact that he had insisted on giving them a “tour.” They really needed to be able to search the school on their own, which would necessitate dumping Mr. Price. Buffy would have liked to check out the basement and the dark corners, but Mr. Price was so concerned with making sure that they only saw the “best and brightest” that it would be difficult.

As the vice-principal blathered on, Buffy tapped Willow’s hand. Can you hear me?
Loud and clear. We need to dump Price if we’re going to get a good look around. Willow nodded minutely. Not to torture you or anything, but do you think you could be really interested in the Chem lab, and let Xander and I sneak away?
Sure. I’ll let him know.
Sure enough, Xander jerked a minute later. “Mr. Harris?” Mr. Price asked.
“Uh, nothing. Sorry. Just, ah…tripped.” Mr. Price looked dubious, but didn’t press the issue.
They entered the Chemistry classroom, and Buffy was mildly surprised to see the three kids from yesterday in the back row. The one girl—Buffy couldn’t remember her name—was looking at them as if trying to decide whether or not to make a break for it in front of the vice-principal.
“Hello, Mrs. Leschak. These are Ms. Rosenburg, Ms. Summers, and Mr. Harris, from the School Review Board. We’ll be sitting in on your class today.”
“Certainly. Welcome. You can sit back there.” The Chemistry teacher directed them to the back, next to the creeped out girl and her friends, one of who was glowering at Willow.
The class started, and Buffy could practically feel Willow gaining a kinship with the blonde boy in glasses right in front of glowering-girl.
She caught Willow’s eye. “Mrs. Leschak?” Willow asked.
The woman appeared rather caught off-guard. “Yes?”
“I’m sorry to interrupt, but I just had to say that you are one of the best Chemistry teachers I have ever encountered. And Chemistry is just my favorite thing in the world,” she gushed.
The two of them immediately started a conversation—which was, incidentally, highly informative to the class.
Buffy leaned over to whisper to Mr. Price. “She could be here for a while. She really loves Chemistry. You should stay, to make sure she doesn’t get too into it. Otherwise, she might end up your new Chem teacher. But, would you mind if Mr. Harris and I went to go look in, say, the English class?”
He looked a little dubious, but nodded. “Right down this hallway; fourth door on the right.”
“Thanks,” Buffy smiled her most charming smile, then motioned to Xander. They crept out of the room, just as Willow was starting a debate on the potential reality of magic, as far as Chemistry was concerned.
Xander sighed as soon as they were clear of the room. “Finally. He was really getting on my nerves.”
“Uh-huh. So what first? Basement?”
“Yeah. That should work.”

They searched the basement. And every janitor’s closest they passed. Every empty classroom, and some that weren’t. The cafeteria, the hallways, the office.
“Nothing,” Buffy snarled softly. “I don’t understand how there can be any type of apocalypse where there’s no mystical converg—”
She was cut off on a rather ungraceful sound as she doubled over on the third stair from the bottom on the ground floor.
*pain suffering death fear pain screaming monsters fear pain*
Xander pulled her up, and down to the ground floor. She gasped for breath.
“I think I found it.”
“Found…it? The mystical convergence? On the stairs?”
She nodded. She watched warily as Xander walked through the place she had just been. He got up to the fifth step, then turned around. He shrugged and walked back. “I got nothing.”
Buffy moved up to the second step. She shook her head. “I can feel it from here. Pain. Darkness. This is where it’s coming from.”
“So what do we do about it?”
“I don’t know.”

The Chemistry students finally managed to tear themselves away from the riveting discussion a few minutes after the bell signaled the end of class.
“That,” Joan said softly, “was beyond weird.”
“Yeah, and don’t look now, but I think your brother’s in love,” snipped Grace.
Sure enough, Luke had darted up and was talking excitedly to Ms. Rosenburg about something that Joan couldn’t even begin to understand.
Mr. Price mumbled something about finding the others and hurried out. Joan was pretty sure he had been scared for a while there, while Ms. Rosenburg and Mrs. Leschak were demonstrating various reactive substances.
Ms. Summers and Mr. Harris walked in then. They leaned against the workstation in front of Willow and Luke, not interrupting. Joan watched in vague amusement, and she noticed that a few other people were hanging around as well.
Finally, Willow trailed off. She caught sight of Buffy and Xander. “Oh. Mr. Price left to go look for you.”
“We noticed. We hid behind some cheerleaders until he was gone.”
Quite a few of the students still in the room laughed.
“We found something you’re gonna want to see, Will.”
Willow looked like she was about to ask what, then she caught on to Buffy’s tone. “Oh. Oh…I’ll, umm…” She turned to Mrs. Leschak. “Sorry. I gotta go do actual work. Did I give you my email?” She hurriedly scribbled the address onto a piece of paper, thrust it at Mrs. Leschak, and left the room after Buffy and Xander.
“That was totally weird,” Grace said. Mrs. Leschak was looking starstruck.
“What was weird about it?” Luke asked. “She was brilliant.”
“She’s the one who said I wasn’t human yesterday.”
Luke shrugged. “Sometimes there’s a fine line between brilliance and insanity. I gotta go to class. Bye.”
Then Joan realized how much time had passed since the end of class. She and Adam hurried out, Grace following at a more leisurely pace.

They had hidden themselves until after class had started. Fortunately, the stairs were hidden from any classrooms, but anyone in the hallway would see them.
“So, the third step?” Buffy nodded. Willow walked up to it. She, like Buffy, stopped at the second step. “You’re right. I can feel it from here.” She took a deep breath, and moved the last step. Like Buffy, she doubled over, feeling all the pain of hell burning in her heart and mind. Xander pulled her out.
After a moment to collect herself, she said, “Whoa. That’s some freaky convergence. The Hellmouth didn’t feel like that.”
“No, but it was a thing. A monster. This one…it’s kinda like a whirlpool.”
Willow nodded. “We can’t do anything about it during school though. We’ll have to go find Mr. Price. We can come back tonight.”
* * *
Joan was sprawled on her bed, making an attempt at doing her French homework. The radio was on, and the song was just winding to a stop.
“That’s not how you spell chaussure, Joan,” the radio said.
She paused. Then groaned and lowered her head. “What now? I put up with the weirdos, didn’t I?”
“Yes, but they’re still here, and they have something important to do, and I think you could help them with it.”
“How?”
“Go to school.”
“Yeah…” she trailed off, not quite understanding. The radio remained silent. “You mean, like, now?”
“Yes.”
“But…no one’s at school now. It’s locked up.”
“They are. Or they will be. And they can unlock it, but if you don’t catch them outside, they won’t be able to let you in.”
“God is condoning breaking and entering?”
“Just this once, and it’s for a good cause.”
“What cause would that be?”
“Saving the world.”
“What?”
“Joan, the world is my little project. I like the world. And I like the people in it. I don’t want the world to be destroyed. In order for it to not be, you need to be at the school when Buffy and Willow try to close the rift.”
She shook her head. “Rift? What rift? And are you actually saying my non-action could actually destroy the world?”
“Yes. And the rift is between Earth and one of the Hell dimensions. You don’t want to know what will come out of that rift if it opens, Joan.”
She considered it for a long time. The radio remained silent. “Okay. So. Go to school. Great. You do realize I have parents, right?”
There was no answer. Instead, the normal radio took over, and a new song started playing.

chapter five

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