Hungry Puppy Presents.....
The Late Shift
Chapter: Meanwhile...Back at the Ranch...Spike sludged into the crypt, like Heathcliff from the moors. “It’s time.” He said gravely.
Why was Spike coming into the crypt, you might ask.
Simple...we had drawn straws earlier...those of us who could see and touch each other...
We had drawn for the expressed honor of venturing out into the rain soaked world to find Mother. Which you can imagine...EVERYONE wanted.
When Spike lost the Contest of the Straws, he had quite soulfully (for a man without a soul) demanded a recount. Because we felt sorry for him, we allowed for The Contest of The Rock-Paper-Scissors (which he lost again)
When that wasn’t enough... we did the Contest of the Drawing names from the Hat.
Spike had glowered down at the soggy paper in my hand with his runny, yet legible name declaring him as the chosen one. Spike had then trudged out to go and uncork the table at the Magic Box, find Mother, and get this mess cleared up...and after half an hour of grousing and stomping around the crypt, he finally went.
Which was why we were surprised to see him slog into the crypt so soon.
He had been gone maybe all of an hour, barely enough time to cross the street, let alone pop the top off an alternate reality, traverse to another dimension, and find a way to convince a very cranky Chronos Demon to help us fix our predicament.
I am not the only one who noted his return. We all looked up at the blonde vampire. Well...at least all of the ALL that was left in the crypt. The extra Taras and Willows were mysteriously....gone.
Water sloughed off Spike’s jacket in long slick rivers. It clung to his pale skin, and hung bravely from the end of his narrow nose as he stepped inside.
“It’s time.” He said again, directly at me. This snapped Willow fully out of her trance. She looked up from her spot on the floor. “Time?” She said at him blearily. In fact, everyone in the room reacted to his voice, most of them unaware that he had ever left the crypt in the first place.
Thunder pealed outside, and all at once we realized that our fractured world had mended itself. We were all in one place, in one time, Spike had found a way....
“Spike... did you find Mother that fast?” I asked him. He was looking at me with the eyes of a man who knew something he didn’t WANT to know...something larger than the whole of us.
He looks like he feels sorry for me....but why?
“It’s time...” He said for the third time. I half expected a clock to knell the hour somewhere in the distance for this Ghost of Crypts to Come.
“Time is relative...Time makes you see what you want to see...then drops you...poof...right into the middle of your worst reality...You can’t trust Time....Time or Death....” Danger piped up from the back wall of the crypt, looking strangely more wary than frightened of the blonde intruder. Mack, the tiny fluff ball, yipped in agreement, and then cuddled up against his master for protection.
Protection from what???
Spike took another step into the crypt, a pale harbinger of doom. He waved a wet arm at the door, spraying us with icy-cold water. He didn’t even have to say what I knew he was about to say.
My blood was already singing in my ears.
A strangely familiar feeling was burning inside me...at my core...
“Behold.... The Gria’t Ap’Tismon . The All Powerful Most Horrific Death. The fly in the ointment of humanity. The Axis on which evil rotates....the...” Spike spoke the words blandly.
“That’s enough, Vampire.” Olivia said, entering the crypt as dry as you please and standing in the door with her fists on her hips. She was wearing a thick, black hooded cloak over a skin-tight, one-pieced, low-cut, red-leather number. Very fetching and a highly-hyphenated visual booby trap to boot.
She flashed us all a bright, if not a little bit naughty, smile. “They know who I am.”
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Willow...MY Willow...clamber to her feet. Buffy took a few steps toward me like it would help.
“Don’t bother, Slayer. Vamps and ghouls you can take, but I know you don’t want to gamble with Untimely Death again. You OR your sister...” She purrs.
Usually this wouldn’t be enough to pause the Slayer, in fact a threat like that would have normally fuel her desire to beat something to a quivering, otherworldly pulp.
But Buffy did pause, she paused so hard that her sneakers squealed when she stopped.
Olivia then focused her attention on me.
“I know what you’re thinking...” She said calmly. “But you know what must be done. You know what I have come for...”
I felt my throat betraying me. I managed a nod.
Yes. I know what you’ve come for.
“No! You can’t have her! You can’t!” Dawn tiraded, trying to come around her older sister. Buffy put a single arm around her small waist to hold her at bay.
Olivia ignored the teen. She glowered at me from beneath the dark hood.
“Say it.” She demanded. I glanced at Willow who seemed confused by the suddenness of all of it.
What is happening here? Wasn’t I just in a Date Night Revelry?
Images of what could happen to the people I love sliced through my mind’s eye as I tried not to frighten her. It dawned slowly over the face of the woman I love. She shook her head.
I had to say it. I knew that.
I had to tell her what she wanted.
But leaving Willow would be the closest I would ever come to a true apocalypse.
I looked down at the floor and felt as though it was opening up beneath my feet.
“Anything that you wish, I give to you of my own free will.” I said numbly.
I was giving this woman my entire world, in trade for all of the people I cared about.
“That is absolutely wonderful...that is just..... perfect...” Olivia said, clapping her hands together once, very loudly, and pushing the hood back from her face so that it fell around her shoulders.
Her hair was long, and her face was terrible and familiar in one.
She was my worst nightmare... standing before me.
I should have known....I should have known....Oh, goddess...
She pointed a pale finger past me
To Willow.
MY Willow.
“I want her.” The Dark Tara said.
I was suddenly and horrifically unmade.
My lips moved, but the only sound that came from me was a dry explosion of air. An incredulous laugh and a scream bubbled up in my chest. I tried to lift my arms, to tell this dark faction of me that she could not have My Willow...My WORLD...but the effort sent me reeling forward several steps and crashing to my knees.
The woman... once Olivia...(now someone I knew far too little and all too well) looked down at me.
All of this? Everything done to claim the woman I love?
She closed in on me. I felt her like every cell in my body wanted to vibrate out of control all at once.
But the note...she helped you, Tara....she wanted you to save....
“ The note was a nice touch, wasn’t it? Made me seem all ‘soft chewy center under the evil crunchy outer shell, hmm?” The Dark Tara smirked.
She reached out, as if to stroke my cheek, and my body reacted violently. I blenched away from her.
“Tare?” Buffy said, confused. “Is that you? And if that’s you...what in the heemie jeemies could make you look like THAT???” Dawn was still sagging like a limp cat in her one arm, also wondering what was going on.
The room was silent but for the roar of the rain outside. I pressed my palms to the floor, grounding myself, feeling the rough, cool surface beneath my fingers.
Got to think...Some part of her is me....she is me....must think of someth.....
“Anything you could possible imagine...I have already imagined, Tara. I am you. I am your future...”
Willow was looking from me to the woman standing over me.
“Be content in knowing that in the future... you’ll get to keep your Willow FOREVER...” Dark Tara said.
“Every Tara must have her Willow...” She said, half of her mouth quirking up in a sinister smile. “It’s written in the stars.”
A strange snake of black electricity crackled across her fingers as she rubbed them together gently.
“Tare?” Willow asked, not quite sure what was going on.
And then, in a fraction of the time between heartbeats... they were both gone.
“You aren’t just going to let that Scelerol number 122 version of you just take Willow like that, are you?” Buffy said incredulously.
I stood up. Slowly. Calmly.
Something...something she had said...
“What are we going to do???” Xander said, adding his panic to Buffy’s. I brushed off my hands...trying not to let the fact that my fear was nearly painful at that point seem obvious.
“ I’m going to go out there, get the girl, and save the day.” I said.
“ I’m going with you.” Buffy announced.
“ Us too.” Xander said, taking Anya’s arm. Anya huffed.
“ I guess I’m in too.” She groused.
“ Well you know you can count me in.” Dawn said, daring me to argue.
“ I’m in.” Danger said. “ But Mack’s not. He’s really small...and doesn’t travel well.”
“ Where are we going?” Buffy asked. I turned to my group of friends.
“ Back to the Carnival.” I said.
A cricket chirped on cue somewhere in the back of the crypt. They all stared at me.
“ Well...have fun!” Anya said, heading for the door and dragging a not-so-reluctant Xander with her.
“ But...rats...” Dawn hedged.
“ And Auntie...” Buffy reminded me
“ And the teeny tiny carousel horses...” Xander gulped.
“ It couldn’t possibly have anything that could help us there...” Anya reasoned.
“ There’s a ride on the East end.” I said walking to the door of the crypt.
“ Um...Tara...sweetie....carnival synonymous with many rides...all directions... scary rides....scary everything...” Xander explained.
“ A cute little kiddie ride maybe?” Danger hoped aloud. They all looked at my expression and knew.
“More like frightening, world-altering ride that puts the sess in possessed...am I right?” Xander said.
“Does this damnable jamboree of fun have a name?” Buffy asked.
“ It’s In the Stars.” I said, and stepped out into the rain.
TBC....
Next up:
A VOTE!!!!!! Three votes a piece... Top two picks get produced first!!!
Television Guide:
Channel Two: The Living Woman Network
Channel Three: The SO-REAL Network
Channel Four: The Late Shift Comedy Hour: Sponsored By Hungry Puppy Donuts Inc.
Channel Five: Pacific Tides Television
Channel Six: Flashbackland
Channel Seven: Futopia Channel
Channel Eight: Children's Broadcast Station
Channel Nine: Nine West
"I told you. I said end of the world. And you're like, "Pooh-pooh, Southern California, pooh-pooh." -Buffy
"And I'd love a cup of coffee"- Wesley Wyndam-Pryce
"Drink up. The world's about to end." - Ford Prefect
by wiccachica » Wed Dec 15, 2004 2:33 pm 
You made me go search for The Late Shift on my own but you're printing it out for her?! What up wit dat?! I tell ya, I get no love from my fave authoress, even when I get her all hooked up with the gorgeous AJ (who, btw, sends her private jet to pick you up at 9pm sharp...she hates to be kept waiting 
). *sigh* I can see this CEO gig is going to be murder. 
i'll read it again as well, i went through some parts in a sleepy stupor to catch up 
-santa-in-skimpy-outfit-ogram"
Thanks for writing. 
