Author RalSt
Pairings W/T, W/O (season 3), X/A
Feedback Yes please
Disclaimer All characters belong to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy
Spoilers Hmmm, well lets say it veers off from canon around the end of season 6, while some parts are more at home in season 3 or even 4.
Summary A powerful and magically assisted vampire forces the scoobies to seek out the help of their older selves. But things don't go as smoothly as they would have liked.
Note This one will be longer than the others I've posted today and posted in chapters
Meeting Me
Chapter 1
The library at Sunnydale high school was once again playing home to a meeting of the town's demon fighters, otherwise know as the Slayer and her Slayerettes.
"I say we go in there and dust some overdressed booty," Xander suggested eagerly. "I could act as decoy."
Buffy held up the swimsuit calendar for the UC Sunnydale cheerleading team. "I don't suppose your heroic offer has anything to do with a nest full of beauty queen types?"
Willow took the calendar and examined it closely. "They're not so hot. I mean, this one looks about twelve." She passed the picture along to her boyfriend.
"Seriously puberty challenged," Oz agreed.
Xander made a grab for the calendar, which over the last year had become one of his prized possessions. "You didn't see Miss November," rifling through the pages he happily displayed it for his friends to see. "See. Puberty landed and went ka-boom." The proffered photo showed a rather buxom young blonde in a very, very skimpy bikini.
"Yes, quite," Giles reached over and confiscated the dog-eared calendar, putting it into a drawer and locking it tightly.
"Hey!" Giving a look of shocked indignation, Xander made a grab for the drawer before his attempt was quashed by a look from the ex-watcher. "They'll get lonely all locked away from their Xan-man," he mumbled, sitting down as close as he could to his prize's gaol.
"As I was saying, the nest is located on the campus of UC Sunnydale and compromises at least twelve freshly turned vampires and their two sires." Pulling an ever present handkerchief from his pocket, Giles began a meticulous cleansing of his glasses, not entirely happy with the news he was about to impart. "From the information I've gleaned, one of the two sires is a former, associate, of Angelus."
The name of Angel's evil alter ego earned its usual intake of breath and shudder of remembrance but since the souled vampire had been returned to them whole, the name didn't have the impact that it once had. "It's not Spike or Dru, is it?" Buffy asked.
"No," the librarian opened one of his many books and turned it around so the slayer could read it more easily. "Her name is Matilda and she was a member of the Spanish nobility, until she was turned around three hundred years ago." A sudden look of understanding crossed Buffy's face and her head lowered in despair.
"Wait, three hundred?" Willow chirped, the smile on her face broadcasting to the world at large that she'd made a deduction. "That means Angel couldn't have turned her."
"Correct, however they do share a sire."
"Darla," the name left Buffy's lips to lie dead on the library table from a severe case of frostbite. Giles merely nodded.
"So?" Xander looked to first Willow and then Oz to make sure he wasn't the only one who failed to see a problem. "Darla did the bite thing with Angel and this Mattie chic, am I missing something? Is it like a whole vampire family deal? Will Angel get all bumpy forehead if we make his sire sister go poof?"
"It isn't that simple," Giles sighed and just managed to resist the urge to re-clean his glasses.
"What Giles means is that there's a good chance that if we turn Matilda into a dustbuster donator we could end up sweeping Angel into an urn." Buffy looked at the three bemused faces and echoed Giles' sigh. "We dust Matilda and Angel dies."
"Huhuh?" Xander articulated.
"And so say all of us," Oz agreed.
"But, but we've killed vamps before and their brothers and sisters or whatever haven't turned into dustbunnies." Willow looked to the ex-watcher as her source of limitless information.
"That's true but on this occasion there is a possibility we may be dealing with more than a mere vampire elimination," he again pointed towards the open book and this time his hint was eagerly taken by the redheaded hacker. "Matilda isn't only a vampire she is also a talented witch, whose powers were quite extensive even before she was turned. With the forfeit of her soul her powers became fixed on the darkest magicks and she spent almost a century perfecting a way of protecting her immortality."
Willow looked up from the book. "She did a spell."
"The Mike Tyson of spells," Buffy agreed.
"What, does it bite your ear off?" Xander quipped.
"No," Giles looked to Willow to explain, as she was much better equipped to deal with her friend's erratic questioning. Not that he hadn't formed some able responses over the last three years but he was developing a headache and could do without any additional stress.
"It says that she petitioned the high goddess Sekhmet to imbue her with the life and strength of all her vampiric line. Which means for every human she turns she grows in strength and for each fatal wound she suffers one of her line is extinguished," Willow looked towards Giles in confusion. "But Angel's not descended from her, he's not part of her line."
"It would appear that once her own sired have been extinguished the spell will require the deaths of those who share a connection with her vampire birth."
"Hey that's great!" Xander enthused. "It means all we have to do is kill her like a thousand times and we get rid of all the vamps in Sunnydale, hell all the vamps on the planet, right?"
"Technically, yes." Giles agreed.
"I think I must be missing something," Oz turned a questioning look towards the ex-watcher, unused to having Xander work through the demonic puzzles before him.
"Essentially the spell means that in killing Matilda you would also kill nearly every other vampire on the planet," he held up a hand to stop Xander's whoop of joy. "Which would include Angel."
Oz nodded in understated understanding as Xander's joy submerged, while at the same time he contemplated the chances of his living through the day if he suggested the concept of the greater good and the life of the many being worth more than the life of the one. Looking at the slayer he decided she probably hadn't seen that episode of Star Trek, so would undoubtedly tie his neck in a tight knot.
"It's a stupid spell," Willow huffed. "I mean, she's pretty much provided the good guys with a sure fire way of extinguishing vampire kind. That's stupid."
"Well I don't believe she had the well-being of her race in mind when she made her pact with the gods. However, it does pose us with a problem," he looked to Buffy not wanting to upset his charge. "If we allow Matilda to continue she could end up turning UC Sunnydale into a hive of vampires, soon followed by the rest of the town. On the other hand if we kill her.."
"We kill Angel," Buffy finished for him.
"Quite."
The room went quiet as those present contemplated the enormity of what they were suggesting. They had sacrificed Angel once before to save the world, or at least Buffy had, but the cost had been horrendous for the young woman. None of them wanted to have to go through that again.
"Achilles heel," Willow blurted, prompting Xander to jump about a mile in the air. "Counter spell," she continued, pointing to a separate section in her book.
"There's a counter spell?" Xander asked in an overly manly voice that he hoped would cover up his rather girlish panic of moments before.
"Yes, but unfortunately it requires certain ingredients that won't be available for another three years," Giles explained.
"Isn't there a way we could contain her until you can get hold of whatever it is?" Oz questioned the older man.
"Hold a three hundred year old vamp for three years?" Buffy pulled a face that amply displayed the chances she gave that idea.
"It would be, extremely problematic," Giles agreed.
"So what's so special we can't get hold of any for three years?" Xander asked.
"Slayer's blood," Buffy intoned. "Or to be more precise, twenty-one year old slayer's blood."
Again silence ensued.
"I don't suppose the Council keep slayer blood in little vials in their basement? Like for experimental purposes, or to look at sternly when they refuse to behave?" Willow asked.
"Not that I know of," although the ex-watcher had to admit the idea of the Council collecting slayer blood wasn't that farfetched.
"So we either wipe out the vamp world along with Angel, throw this Matilda in a box and hope she don't get out for a few years or jump in a time machine and go visit mature Buffy for a pint of the red stuff." Xander summarised.
"Time machine?" Buffy was off her seat and looking more animated than she had since Angel's name was first mentioned.
"It was a joke Buff," Xander interjected, trying to calm the now pacing slayer down. "They had an HG Wells night on cable last week. There were monsters and weird things happening, it was almost like home, except for the stuffy guys with British accents. Oh wait, that is home."
"Time travel is possible, right?" Buffy questioned her watcher, totally ignoring Xander's latest outburst, even as it earned a smile from the redheaded hacker. "There are spells and stuff?"
"Well there are certain incantations that can open up temporal folds and allow passage between both parallel dimensions and possibly different time frames within our own world. Although I have no direct experience of the latter, we all saw the results of bringing a member of an alternate dimension into this one." Giles supplied, reminding them of the confusion and trouble that ensued just a month earlier when a vampire Willow had been brought into their world from another dimension. "On that experience alone I would caution against even thinking about meddling with temporal folds."
"But it is possible," the slayer demanded.
"Yes." Giles conceded. "But must I remind you that we still have a small matter of the Mayor's ascension and a rogue slayer to deal with. This isn't really the time to start playing with unknown magicks and possible temporal contamination."
"Contamination?" Oz questioned.
"Oh it's like the Prime Directive, or is it the temporal directive?" Xander looked to the others only to be met with blank looks. "You know, if you mess with the past you can totally screw up the future or present or whatever."
"But we'll be going into the future," Buffy pointed out. "So we couldn't affect anything here."
"No, but knowing about what happens in the future might make us do things differently and that would mean changing the future we visit," Willow explained.
"But it hasn't happened yet, so it wouldn't matter," Oz looked towards the slayer and received a thankful smile. He wasn't any more anxious to go time travelling than the rest but he'd always found the notion of time distortions and paradoxes overrated. If something was meant to happen, then it would.
Before Willow could release the babble that was building inside her skull, Buffy came to a decision. "We get in, collect a few drops of blood, we get out. No messing with time, no problem."
"And I suppose the future Buffy is just gonna stand there and open up a vain?" Xander walked around the table until he was in front of the slayer. "I mean if some younger you suddenly showed up with a syringe would you just stand there while she stuck it in?"
"Sure," she took in four disbelieving faces and turned a pout on her friends. "If it was a younger me then I'd know I was coming and be ready with the syringe filled even before I got there."
Giles couldn't argue that point but it still didn't mean he was willing to mess with other plains of existence. Yet over the last couple of years he'd learnt to gauge when the slayer's mind was set and it was definitely one of those times. It was pretty much always one of those times when it came to Angel. With reluctance he stood and headed towards the back of the library. "I'll research the temporal folds. In the meantime I suggest you get to class."
Buffy smiled her little girl smile. "Thanks Giles." Then one by one they left the library.
***
As Willow took extensive notes in her math class and Buffy worried about the effects of the atmosphere in the science labs on her hair, Xander was attempting to keep from snoring in class and Oz had disappeared to go tune his guitar. Yet when the final bell sounded and school was let out for another day, the four friends came together once more to face whatever new challenge the Hellmouth had in store for them.
"So Giles, what's the what?" The slayer heaved herself up onto a counter and peered expectantly at the Englishman.
He looked first to the blonde and then to the others, still unsure that they were doing the right thing. "I've found a way. It's difficult but not impossible, given the proper amount of concentration and effort."
"Huh what?" Xander put down his magazine and tried to tune in to what the ex-watcher was saying.
"He said it needed concentration and effort," Buffy warned. "This isn't the time to goof off Xander."
"Goof? No goofing here. I'm a goof-free zone." He looked to Willow for support. "Ask anyone, I'm goofless."
"Goofless and toothless," Willow smiled.
Giles ignored the young people's prattling and began stuffing books and ingredients into a large bag. "I suggest we perform the ritual at Buffy's house."
"Why?" The slayer didn't like the idea of troubling her mother any more than she had to.
"Oh, I know," Willow bounced. "'Cause in three years time you'll have left school and be in college, but your mom will still know how to find you."
"Exactly," Giles conceded and grasping his bag he headed towards the door. "Lets go."
***
Less than an hour later the living room of the Summers house had been stripped of all its belongings and an intricate pattern created from sea salt covered the floor. Seven candles were arranged at specific points, casting an ethereal glow across the room. A harvest of crystals and sprig of twice blessed clover were placed in the centre, with five drops of individual blood forming a circle around them. The five participants in the ritual had been forced to remove all traces of jewellery and dress themselves in the minimum of clothing, while retaining what Giles described as the necessities of modesty. The youngsters had all translated that to mean T-shirt and jeans, their bare toes wiggling in the candlelight.
Giles sat at what was ostensibly the head of the circle, the others spread out around the outer edges. A large book was opened in front of him, the pages strewn with odd symbols that related to an ancient language. Babylonian.
"So we all hold hands, you say the spell and then whamo we open our eyes to the future?" Buffy double, no triple, checked.
"In its most simplistic form, yes." Giles continued to sprinkle tiny flakes of salt around the book. "Although from what I understand it might take a while for us to interact fully with our new surroundings."
"What happens in the meantime? Are we just like stuck in the middle of the room in our bare feet?" Xander again wiggled his toes and wished for a good pair of boots.
"I'm not sure." Giles produced a length of glass tubing similar to one of the science lab's test tubes only thinner and placed it above the crystals. "Ready?"
Four heads nodded in differing shades of conviction and the youngsters joined hands to begin the ceremony. Giles began to speak;
Icnayus bracilla fortin,
Future, life, fruition
Coletus molani petarus
Grace, hope, need
Future, life, fruition
Coletus molani petarus
Grace, hope, need
The candles flared and the tip of the tube began to glow a luminous green before the air around them burst into a thousand flames of hottest white and the five figures dropped as if dead upon the floor.
***
The first sign that anything other than pain and a light show had occurred came with the sudden reappearance of the living room's furniture, which miraculously managed not to collide with any of the prone bodies. The next sign was more conclusive and more rushed.
"Dawn! Where's my bracelet?" Shouted the older image of the slayer as she skipped through the room, uprooting the sofa's cushions and searching behind every conceivable obstacle.
The five time travellers jumped groggily to their feet and almost spontaneously began calling to the older slayer in excitement.
"Buffy, I don't want to alarm you but we've arrived from the past."
"We did it, I don't believe we did it. We did do it, didn't we?"
"Buffmeister!"
"Hey."
"My god that's me. I look good."
Buffy the elder just carried on her search, totally oblivious to the commotion her appearance had caused.
"Buffy, it's us," Willow tried again, waving her hands cheerily in front of her future friend.
"Willow!" The oblivious slayer bellowed.
"Yes, that's right, Willow," the redheaded hacker turned a beaming smile on her fellow time travellers. "She remembers me."
"Willow! Have you seen my bracelet?" Buffy again shouted, her words aimed at the stairs to the Summers house's second floor.
"I don't think she's talking to you," Giles crossed in front of the new Buffy and began to study the various items that had found a home in Joyce's house over the last three years. He especially noticed a string of photos depicting a young brown haired girl, either alone or with other members of the Summers family and even the Scoobies.
There was the sound of running feet and an attractive red-haired woman descended the stairs. It wasn't that the new arrival was so different from her younger self which momentarily threw the group but that compared to the Willow who had transported in from the past, this new version was an adult, with adult and even sexy clothes and a more confident manner. But the smile and look of confusion that chased each other across her face when once again questioned by her friend, was pure Willow.
"I grew up," the hacker marvelled.
"You grew up nice," Xander agreed before a single look from Oz silenced him.
Giles ignored the comments. "I suggest we take a seat until the effects of the spell are fully realised and we can interact with this time frame."
"How long will that be?" Xander asked.
"At this point I couldn't even hazard a guess." Taking a seat on the sofa he relaxed back into the material.
"So we just wait?" Buffy was an action girl, not a wait around in her living room girl.
"Exactly."
The five of them scattered to different parts of the room and hopefully out of the way of the room's other occupants, who it appeared had stopped their search. It gave the teenagers and their watcher a perfect opportunity to study the older versions.
"I look pretty much the same," Buffy judged.
"Thinner," Willow decided.
"And rather attached to your jewellery," Oz offered.
The older slayer gave up. Her bracelet had no doubt gone the way of lost socks everyone, unless Dawn's bout of kleptomania had returned. "Do you think Dawn might have it?"
"Nope," the witch looked at her watch and then over towards the door. "She was mumbling something about no-one ever believing her and how she didn't like your stupid bracelet anyway, as I passed her door."
The slayer shrugged. "Would Tara have borrowed it?" The question was asked as if she already knew it was impossible.
"I wouldn't think so," the question prompted the redhead to again look towards the door.
"You know what they say Will, a watched door never opens," Buffy cautioned as she too checked for movement. "I hope Xander and Anya didn't kill each other."
"Nah, I mean I know Anya's back with the vengeance but I don't think she'd try anything with Tara there. Not that she'd try anything anyway. Well, probably not," Willow's voice trailed off. "She wouldn't."
Just then a clomping sound began to issue from the direction of the stairs and a teenage girl with long brown hair bounded into the room. "Are they back yet?"
"Not yet," Willow huffed.
The five watchers sat up and took notice of the new arrival, their faces showing equal lack of recognition. Not that they expected to know everyone the slayer would associate with after three years but from what the elder Willow had said the girl was living in the Summers house and that made it strange that they'd no idea who she was.
As if suffering a case of delayed reaction Xander turned a shocked face towards the others. "Did they say Anya was going to kill me? Anya of the ex-demon, vamp Willow calling pain in the behind?"
"Presumably, unless there's another Anya in Sunnydale," Giles surmised.
Turning towards the younger slayer and her hacker friend he pointed an accusing finger. "You left me alone with a psycho ex-demon."
"No we didn't," Buffy pouted. "They did." She pointed towards the elder Willow and Buffy, who had lapsed in to what appeared to be sullen waiting.
"You weren't alone, you were with Tara," the hacker looked at Buffy, "Who's Tara?" The slayer just shrugged.
Whilst the younger members of the group were busy spying on two of their older selves, Giles was examining the glass tube that had accompanied him from their time and would act as a trigger to allow them back. The original ceremony had rendered the tube a midnight blue but as he looked at it more closely he saw the colour inside swirl and fade as if it had been filled with a coloured gas that was slowly dissipating. If that were the case he estimated they'd be completely integrated into their new time in less than twenty minutes.
Suddenly Dawn was off her seat and rushing towards the window, nearly walking through or knocking into Oz in her haste. Not that she knew he was there and even if she had it was questionable as to whether she'd have slowed her pace, her excitement was palpable. "They're here."
"Here?" Willow was off her seat and heading towards the door before the word had fully left her lips.
"Whoa there tiger," Buffy managed to put a stop to her friend's forward motion but only due to the advantage of slayer strength. "Have you never heard of playing hard to get?"
"Heard of it. Dismissed it as a stupid idea," Willow countered, her body automatically edging towards the door. "They've been gone ages."
"Three days is not ages," Buffy looked at her two overeager companions and couldn't help a smile. She'd missed their friends too but it had only been three days. "I guess three smoochie-less days are a bit too much for some people," she chuckled.
Willow's smile faded. "It's not just the three days, it's the months we were broke up plus the near miss with Warren and the gun AND the three days."
"Sorry Will, I think sometimes I forget what it's like to be in love," the slayer released her friend's arm and together with her sister joined the witch at the now open door. "What is Xander wearing?" The three figures just looked at each other and shrugged.
The five newcomers were only a step or two behind the others, each hoping to catch a glimpse of someone new. Preferably there own later selves. "Did you hear that? Willow's pining after me," Xander beamed, earning two near identical scowls from the hacker and werewolf. "What? You heard Buffy, er, old Buffy. Will's desperate for the Xan-man's smoochies."
"Are you sure this is the future and not a hell dimension?" Oz deadpanned.
The newcomers fell silent as a trio of weary travellers arrived to be smothered in eager hugs. The first thing all of them noticed was the purple kimono covering Xander's body. "I'm a cross-dresser?" He asked no-one in particular.
It seemed that the elder members of the room were having as much trouble rationalising the man's dress as his younger self. "Did you lose a bet?" Buffy asked as she pulled him to her for a proper welcome back.
"Anya," came his answer and somehow for those nearest the door it was answer enough. "So, have you missed the big guy?"
"Nah, but we've missed little old you," Willow answered for the group as the hug transferred to her.
"Little you?" Oz asked his friend. "Not a great nickname coming from your 'girlfriend'"
"Hey!" Both Xanders complained.
"His shirt was accidentally ruined by falling grape juice, so I generously allowed him to borrow something to wear," Anya explained to a smiling Dawn. "I thought it was very human of me. I mean I could have taken vengeance on him and made him ride back naked for the last hour."
"So why didn't you?" Willow questioned.
"I didn't want to make Tara ill," the vengeance demon smiled at the blonde witch, whose rather forced grin paid testament to the four hours she'd just spent in a confined space with two former lovers who were both bent on revenge and still in love.
"It was hell, wasn't it?" Buffy asked the witch.
"It..." Tara sighed, "it was different." The blonde managed to release herself from Dawn's rambunctious embrace and stepped shyly towards Willow, a look of barely suppressed glee on her face. "I am glad to be home though."
"Whoa, I think this is where we return to our upright positions and prepare to step away from the smoochies," Xander decided as he herded the others into the living room, allowing Willow and Tara a modicum of privacy.
"Huh?" The younger Xander shared a confused look with Oz before the newcomers inched forward to see exactly why the others had left older Willow alone with the new girl.
"Did you have a good trip?" Willow questioned, her fingers automatically entwining with her girlfriend's.
"Three days alone with Xander and Anya, what's not to love?" The blonde half smiled, her attention already having drifted from her mini-break from hell. Her head tipped forward, momentarily obscuring her face from view. "I missed you."
"Me too." There was a moments pause as the two young women stared deeply into one another's eyes. All the love and longing that had been denied expression over the last three days was plainly written on their faces. With a whimper their lips met, the first kiss almost tentative before it was consumed in a wave of passion. Tara's fingers brushed across Willow's ear before burying themselves in the silky red hair and pulling their mouths into even closer contact.
Willow moaned, her hands slipping beneath Tara's T-shirt and beginning a leisurely exploration of the fevered skin beneath. Tension was quickly giving way to passion and hands began to familiarise themselves with willing bodies. Just as their passion was about to escalate a voice from the other room interrupted their fun.
"Okay, enough with the smoochies out there, it's present time," called a far too happy Xander. "Don't make me have to come out there and throw a bucket of water over you two. It was fun the first time but after that it gets kind of lame."
"Personally I enjoyed how Willow pushed you into the Johnson's swimming pool as revenge," Anya sighed. "Fully clothed and wet through, you looked like a drowned moose."
"Don't you mean drowned rat?" Dawn asked.
"No, definitely a moose."
The conversation was brought to a close as the two witches rejoined the group, their clothes slightly rumpled.
Five time travelling demon fighters stood rooted to the spot, their eyes practically super glued to the wall against which the witches had been kissing. Five jaws hung open, then slowly four sets of eyes swung to stare at the beet red hacker. Willow felt hot, burning in fact. The only problem was she couldn't decide if her temperature was due to extreme embarrassment or a rampant case of horny. What she did know was that she didn't want to look anyone in the eye for at least another lifetime, especially her boyfriend. Luckily for her they were about to get a timely interruption.
"Arrrrggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" The scream pierced the air and had nearly every member of the house grabbing their chests in fear of heart failure. Her scream spent, Dawn frantically pointed towards the five rapidly materialising figures grouped around the doorway. "G-ghosts!"
"What?" "Where?" Both Xanders were up and bouncing around on their toes, prepared for fight or flight. The sight would have been almost symmetrical if not for the flowing purple kimono that danced around older Xander's legs.
The twice dead slayer was on her feet just as quickly, Mr Pointy clasped in her hand and ready for some serious dusting. Not that stakes usually had much of an effect on ghosts but it made her feel better. "Step back," she ordered the group as she prepared to confront...her. "Me? Another me?" She questioned Willow, who looked to her girlfriend for an explanation.
"Actually a younger version of yourself," Giles explained as the last vestiges of the spell evaporated and they were turned from ghostlike figures to real people. "Perhaps you recall the spell?"
"Giles?" Buffy was torn between wanting to rush up to hug her absentee watcher and throwing a bottle of holy water on him to be certain. "I don't remember doing any time travel. Time looping, yeah, but no popping off to the future."
The five new arrivals shared a confused look. If the spell had worked as it was meant to their older selves would have been fully prepared for their arrival. Which could only mean they'd accidentally been transported to the future of an alternate universe. "Whoops." The young hacker summed up for the group.
"Whoops?" Buffy turned Mr Pointy on the younger Willow but even before the other version of herself could react she'd lowered it. Threatening her best friend was just too weird, even for her.
"They're you," Tara finally spoke up, only to get a 'we saw the resemblance' look from everybody. "No I mean they ARE you. Y-younger versions of you, but still you."
Willow took hold of her girlfriend's hand and just missed seeing the blush that rose on her younger self's cheeks as a consequence, but Tara didn't. "How can you tell?"
"It's kind of like when F-faith was in Buffy's body and I could see the change in her energy, only this time the energy patterns are almost identical. Just the n-normal variations you'd expect over time."
"So they're you," Dawn nodded cheerfully, not for a minute thinking to question Tara's judgement. "This is so cool."
Buffy ignored her sister and looking pointedly at Giles beckoned the others to sit down, for a little game of what she liked to call 'scare the truth out of the newbies'. It was really just a slightly different version of 'scare the vamp into spilling its guts' but without the wood to the heart threat. Which was a pity as that was her favourite part. "So Giles, unless time or reality have totally screwed things up, you'll be giving us an explanation about now?"
"Yes, yes of course." Off came his glasses and after a perfunctory wipe against his T-shirt, which earned a smile from every set of lips in the room, he began to explain their reasoning for being there.
Ten minutes later the three elder members of the Scoobie gang gave each other a look of understanding and the final layer of tension dissolved from their bodies. "I always wondered what happened," Willow turned from the others to look directly at her younger self. "You see, we, erm you, er we?" She looked to Tara who just smiled and nodded for her to continued. "We all went to Mrs Summers house to perform the spell but we thought something went wrong, as besides a light show and thumping headache nothing happened. But then as we were getting up to go home, Giles found a small vial of blood in his pocket, the words 'slayer 21' written in his own hand on the side." She looked over to the younger slayer. "Matilda didn't stand a chance."
"And Angel? Was he okay?" The young blonde wanted to know.
"He was fine," Willow assured her. "Still is."
"So we get to travel into the future but can't remember anything?" Oz looked less than impressed with the whole thing. Which could have just been typical Oz or the remaining shock from seeing his girlfriend in the arms of someone else. "Not exactly high on the cool meter."
"But it's a good way to preserve the Prime Directive thingie," Xander piped up, earning a nod of agreement from his redheaded friend. "So is this the part where we gets some Buffblood and scadaddle?"
Both of the Buffys looked at him with equally chastising grins. "What? No meal or flowers first?" Asked the elder. "Want, take, have? Not a great philosophy," the younger version agreed, followed by a shudder from both at the remembrance of Faith.
"As loathed as I am to agree with Xander," the watcher began, "we did come here to accomplish a task and the sooner that task can be realised, the sooner the current threat can be eliminated." Looking around the room he felt a sharp tug at his innate sense of inquisitiveness but knowing that he would remember nothing of the information he gleaned would only make the process frustrating. "So, if you wouldn't mind?" He held up the empty vial to the of-age slayer.
"Whoopee, it's stick Buffy with pins time," she groused, but willing took the vial and headed off to the bathroom for some privacy.
With her departure the other occupants of the room were left to stare at one another, the urge to find out some information from the older versions of themselves was almost too much for young Willow and Xander but it was eventually Oz who broke the silence. "So am I dead?"
The elder Willow blinked but realising what he meant rushed to reassure her ex. "No, no Oz is fine, you're fine," she once again looked to Tara. "Was the last card from Istanbul?"
"I think so."
"You're in Istanbul," Willow smiled. "I mean not you, you but older you. Or a possible older you or maybe another dimensional you? I'm not sure, Anya's really the expert in alternate dimensions."
"That is true," beamed the vengeance demon, who had begun to think she'd been forgotten in the crush of too many Buffys, Willows and especially Xanders. "Although in this case I believe it to be just a simple time dislocation and nothing trans-dimensional in the true sense."
"So you got your powers back?" Ventured the hacker.
The vengeance demon turned an icy glared at her former fiancé. "Yes."
"Good, that's good," the young redhead babbled, her eyes quickly skittering away from the blonde demon to land on the darker blonde woman who had been on her mind ever since she witnessed a certain welcoming. "Um, who are you?"
The redheaded witch automatically reached out a hand to settle on her younger self's shoulder, her other already settled within her girlfriend's grasp. "This is Tara," she told her happily before turning to the blonde and in a slightly formal tone introducing her to the younger version of herself. "Tara, I'd like you to meet...me."
Tara just smiled at the two redheads, who despite their differences were still so obviously the Willow she fell in love with. "Hi," with that single word the hacker blushed and the blonde witch wondered just what she'd done to cause the girl's embarrassment. "I guess this must be kind of strange for you. Seeing yours-s-self like this."
"Not as bad as last time," the hacker confided.
"Eww skanky vamp me was way stranger," the older Willow agreed and the two redheads shared a look of revulsion, even as the younger began to question the 'kinda gay' comment she'd made about the vamp and Angel's almost agreement.
Young Xander looked at his older best friend and couldn't help but notice a distinct similarity between the elder Willow's dress and vamp Willow. Not that the redhead was decked out in leather and exuding skank but her dark blue jeans did appear to have been sprayed on to curves he'd never noticed before and the black shirt definitely made the most of her figure. It was a far cry from the fluffy pink jumper his redhead had been wearing before the time jump. But then who was he to talk about clothing? His elder self was standing there in a purple kimono and green socks.
Oz's attention seemed to have been caught by the blonde witch, who still had her fingers entwined with the older Willow. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out something was going on between the two and from what the elder Scoobies had been saying before Tara's arrival it sounded as if things were pretty serious. That left him with one big question. What had happened to him and Willow? "Do you and I know each other? In this time I mean," he asked the witch, drawing the attention of everyone in the room.
"W-we've m-met," Tara's stammer intensified as she recalled their last meeting and the uncertainty and heartache she'd suffered when Willow's former love had suddenly reappeared.
"Oh yeah, you like went totally wolf on Tara and tried to turn her into breakfast," Dawn enthused, too caught up in her story to register the daggered look Willow was sending her. "If Riley and the Initiate boys hadn't shown up she'd have been dead meat," the teen had the grace to look slightly sickened by the idea. "I don't think you meant to harm her though, it was just the wolf and the Willow smell and everything," she trailed off.
"Willow smell?" Oz was doing his best to try and keep his cool in the face of his wolf side's obvious reign of terror. He just hoped he hadn't hurt anyone, or frightened Willow so badly that she'd finished things with him and moved on to one of his victims as a means of reparation.
"It was nothing," Tara interrupted, "Y-y-you were just a little upset."
"You came home thinking you'd found a cure for the wolf thing but one whiff of Tara and you knew that she and Willow where orgasm buddies and you totally wolfed out and tried to kill her," Anya supplied in her typical blunt fashion. "You were caught by the Initiate but rescued before they could dissect you as part of a science experiment."
"We were not orgasm buddies," elder Willow ground out and for a moment she wished she'd never agreed to give up the magicks, as she had a driving urge to send the demon into another, fiery dimension. "It wasn't as bad as she makes it sound." She reassured Oz.
"Orgasm buddy?" Young Willow squeaked.
Several sets of eyes turned on the redhead, none of them willing to get into that explanation anytime soon.
"All done," cried the recently bled slayer as she walked back into the room, her smile faltering as she took in the tension that had descended upon the group. "Okay, did I miss something?"
"It wasn't me," Dawn chirped in quickly, her eyes indicating Anya in an overly dramatic fashion.
The vengeance demon was nonplussed by the accusatory looks she was receiving, that is until she spotted Tara's shyly embarrassed glance. The blonde witch had a way of making her feel as if she truly belonged in the group, or maybe their shared outsider image had allowed them to bond in a special way before the group opened up to more fully accept them as anything more than the girlfriends of existing members. Whatever the reason she liked Tara and despite being all demon-y again, she didn't like to cause her pain. "I will say no more."
"You've said enough already," Xander accused.
"What did she say?" Buffy was still confused, which she found really annoying.
"Anya and Dawn were just explaining to Oz how I first met him," Tara explained calmly, her tone making it sound as if the conversation had been about a quiet meeting over tea and crumpets and not a rabid wolf attack brought on by jealousy.
Buffy had been about to ask more questions when she was interrupted by Giles. "I have a question." Taking heed of the murderous look that crossed Willow's face he was quick to add, "not about Tara or Oz." The group turned to look at him and with a nod from the elder slayer he pointed towards the brown haired teen. "Who's Dawn?"
Buffy, Willow, Xander, Anya, Tara and Dawn all looked at one another and then collectively shook their heads. "Long story Giles," Buffy stated and with that it appeared the subject had been dropped; at least by the future people.
"Does that mean you're not going to tell us?" Xander tried to ask the question of his older self, thinking he'd be more likely to give in than the others but one look at the purple kimono and he couldn't keep eye contact.
"Correct," Anya agreed, knowing that for once her bluntness was actually needed. "Shouldn't you be going now?"
The five time travellers shared a reluctant glance but none of them could think of a good reason for delaying their mission. It wasn't as if they'd remember anything. "You're quite right," Giles conceded.
"Yes. Yes I am," Anya agreed, her smile one of confident superiority, even if she was unsure why the Englishman had conceded so quickly. Normally Giles tended to argue the point with her ad nauseum. "Why aren't you leaving?" She asked a moment later when the five still stood quietly in the living room.
"Anya!" Green eyes bored into the demon as Willow attempted to gloss over the other woman's lack of manners in front of their guests. She was equally as anxious for the new arrivals to leave, having Oz and Tara in the same room just didn't sit well with her somehow, but she wasn't about to throw them out in the street. "Do you need anything to help with the trip back?"
"No thank you Willow, it is all under control." Giles held up the piece of tubing he'd been studying earlier. "I would suggest we hold hands for the trip back," he instructed and once the five were joined in a small circle he raised the tubing and snapped it forcefully in half.
As the glass shattered those in the room held their breath and waited for whatever side effects might deign to rain down on them. What they received wasn't quite what they'd expected.
"Well that was less than spectacular," Xander supplied, only to have his younger self pipe up in agreement. "I'd say on the spectacular meter it rates about a two point five, although the Russian panel are still deliberating."
"Oh," Giles looked closely at the broken tube before pushing a finger into one of the cushions that lined the sofa. The material was solid under his touch or at least as solid as a cushion ever was. "I believe we may have hit a snag."
"You don't say," the two Buffy's chorused.
"With observational skills like that, how could the council have ever let this guy go?" Young Xander asked the room at large.
"Do you know what went wrong?" The hacker questioned.
"Could there be a delayed reaction?" Her elder self piped up.
Giles just continued to watch the tube, his brow furrowed. "I don't understand, the releasing of the energies should have restored us to our proper time."
Anya took a step towards her former boss and made a show of sniffing at the glass tubing before pinching Giles' arm a little too hard.
"Oww!"
"You forgot to sanctify the tube," the demon informed him. "Simple mistake any amateur could have made."
"I am not an amateur," Giles sniffed.
"Yeah, he's not an amateur," young Willow defended. "You did sanctify the tube, right?"
"Well," he looked around the group, his look answering the question long before his words. "The spell never actually mentioned sanctifying the tube, so it would have been impossible for me to know I should do it. If indeed I was meant to."
"You were," Anya stated with authority.
"So, we're like stuck here?" Xander's bemused expression transformed to one of doubt as his eyes travelling to his kimonoed double. "I'm not sure the world is ready for two of me."
"I agree," Anya stated. "Although the last time it happened there were a couple of things I didn't get to try." She looked contemplative for a moment before dismissing the idea. Having sex with two Xanders at once might have been appealing before the wedding from hell, but now she much preferred the idea of double vengeance on the dark haired man. "I can punish you both, that will be enjoyable."
"Punish?" Xander witnessed the colour drain from his older self's face and decided there and then that they were going home. "Come on Giles, there must be some way to get us back."
The librarian was lost in thought and only managed to rejoin the conversation after Xander's hand waved in front of his face a couple of times. "What? If only I had my books."
"Oh, Magic Box," Willow eagerly turned to her younger self. "You'll love it there, they've got all these books and ingredients. It's kind of like a sweet shop for witches." Her enthusiasm died a quick death as she caught a pointed look from her girlfriend. "But you might want to cut back on the magicks a little, maybe take up sewing or something, I've heard that it can be quite therapeutic, in a non-violent, black-eyed kind of way." The redhead took a deep breath in preparation for the next round of babbling but a gentle smile from Tara stole the words from her lips and let her know she wasn't in any trouble for her over enthusiastic magicks pitch.
"Will's right, we should probably head over to the magic shop." Buffy looked towards the three replicas of those already in the room and wondered if passers by would accept the twins convention excuse she was formulating or if she should suggest only Giles and Oz be allowed to leave the house, as they were the only ones whose elder selves were off travelling the globe or drinking tea in Bath. "Maybe we should split up? Avoid confusion."
Giles nodded, not only would it avoid confusing any passers by they might be acquainted with but it would also stop him having to look at a kimonoed Xander. "I would suggest Willow, Anya and I visit this magic shop, while the rest of you...do something else."
"Suave with the plan there G-man," Xander grinned, his mind more consumed with a change of clothing than a visit from his younger self.
"When you say Willow, do you mean me Willow or her Willow?" The younger of the two aforementioned Willows asked.
"Well presuming your knowledge of magick will only increase as time progresses, I would suggest the elder you," Giles smiled warmly at the young hacker in the hope of diffusing any disappointment she might feel at being left behind in preference of the elder her. Turning his gaze to the elder redhead he was surprised to find that she was the one now sporting a look of regret. "Is something the matter?"
"I just think maybe the other me would be better to look into the magick." Not looking at anyone, Willow tried not to think too closely about the reasons for her suggestion. Her expression became even grimmer when she realised Giles had missed the other source of witchly knowledge in the house. "Tara should probably go though, she's a powerful witch."
Whereas in the past she would have disagreed with that statement, Tara just let it pass. "It would probably be a good idea if one of the Buffys came too, just in case we run into trouble or nerds."
"Nerds?" Young Willow didn't know whether to be insulted by that statement or not. She'd been called a geek too many times in high school to be comfortable with anyone apparently dissing her fellow un-populars. She also found it rather disturbing that it was Tara who had made the statement. She would have thought anyone as close to her elder self as she imagined the other girl was, wouldn't be so insensitive.
"She means the trio of dorkness," her elder self supplied. "Believe me, you'll call them the same thing when you meet them. Or meet them again in Jonathan's case." Seeing confusion mirrored back to her in familiar green eyes Willow felt a surge of protectiveness for her younger self. It was somehow hard to believe that she'd ever been that innocent. In fact, she still was at times. "They're nothing to worry about, just a bunch of would be bad guys who are about as effective as Xander with a spell book."
"I heard that," twin voices interrupted.
"And since Warren was arrested they don't even have a leader anymore," she continued, totally ignoring the interruption and the Xanders' faux annoyed looks. "But I still think it would be better if Buffy was there with you."
"I agree," said the slayer. "And since I'm the only one of me who knows what the latest batch of bad guys looks like, I guess I'm for the Magic Box and Buffy junior is on Xander watch."
"Hey!" This time the protest came from both the Xanders and young Buffy, who definitely didn't like the junior title.
"Yes, quite. Perhaps we should go?" Giles looked pointedly at the smirking Buffy and was soon ushering the others through the door. "I would suggest you do something productive while we're gone," were his last words as he left.
Approximately five seconds later he was back. "You wouldn't have such a thing as a pair of men's shoes, size ten?"
***
After Giles and young Willow had been appropriately shod the small research party left to seek out some answers. Fortunately for both the elder and younger Xander the carpenter had also taken the time to adjust his wardrobe, bemoaning demons the entire time.
"So what did we do to upset the vengeful one?" The younger man asked. "You haven't been withholding the Xan-man's special attentions from the lady, have ya?" He turned to Oz with a practised swagger. "The ladies hate to be deprived of that special Xander magic."
"Yeah right," Buffy shared a fond look with her redheaded future friend.
"Actually I'd rather not talk about it," Xander stated, the pain he felt at recollecting his actions missed by all but his best friend.
"Lets change the subject," she suggested pointedly, giving young Xander a look he had learnt long ago not to question. "Soooo, time travel...erm?"
"Yeah, time travel," Xander tried to pick up the conversational ball that Willow had so spectacularly dropped but his mind was still a little too focused on Anya and the marriage that never was. "The travelling through time..."
"Kind of like Quantum Leap, but without the body swapping and talking hologram of your best friend," Willow babbled. "So I guess that's not really like Quantum Leap at all, although he is in the new Star Trek, so it's kind of time travel, only without the actual travelling through time."
"There's a new Star Trek?" Xander cut through the babble with a knife and hit on the only part of the sentence he found the least bit intriguing. "Are there Romulans? I always liked the Romulans, sort of Spock like but with added crazy factor."
"I don't think so," Willow tried to recall the adverts she'd seen for the show, having never actually watched an episode. "There's a Vulcan, I think."
"Ah yes, T'Pol, the babalicious Vulcan with attitude," Xander supplied and in doing so captured the full range of his younger self's attention. "She's kind of like a mix between Spock and Seven, with a little Saavik throw in for good measure."
"Huh?" Buffy didn't even pretend to be interested in the geekspeak. "Giles said we should do something productive, I hardly think this qualifies."
"Is there some way we could work on the problem from here?" Oz ventured from his relaxed place on the sofa.
"I don't see how," Willow replied dejectedly. She was research girl and being excluded from the researching part of that title was no fun. "Giles never even mentioned what spell he'd used, apart from it being Babylonian in origin and that could mean almost anything. I mean we might need to trace it back to its Sumerian roots or perhaps..."
"Okay Will, I think we get the message, no spell helpage," Buffy interrupted before she was forced to listen to more ancient gobbledegook that would no doubt one day come back to haunt her. Perhaps literally. "So is there anything our future selves need help with? You want me to kick something? Dust something? Pull someone's arms off until they squeal?"
"Not really," Willow had a brief desire to send Buffy off to the local gaol to kick Warren around a little but she managed to quash it. "There's no big bad around at the moment and the vamps won't be out for a while, so I can't think of anything."
Six bodies slumped down into their seats, none of them entirely sure what to do with themselves and all wishing they could have been one of those chosen to go to the Magic Box.
***
Giles peered around the shop with a distinct air of dissatisfaction, as if the establishment had been tried and found wanting. It wasn't that he'd never been in the shop before, in fact he'd purchased a number of supplies from the previous owner, or at least one of the many previous owners. It had just never struck him as a place of serious research and knowledge.
"Do you have the owner's permission to enter the shop outside opening times?" He questioned Buffy. The elder slayer and her vengeance demon friend had happily bypassed the closed sign on the door and wandered inside but it left him feeling like an intruder. "The sign did say closed until further notice."
"I closed up shop while we were away at the fair," Anya supplied. "I estimated the increase in revenue from the advertising portion of the fair alone would make up for the temporary closure." It had actually taken the overly capitalist demon hours of calculations to figure that one out but eventually the results had been gathered and her decision was made. She had originally decided to give up the shop in favour of her demon related occupation but after only a little while she'd begun to miss watching the money too much to give it up. So for now she was a shopkeeper full time and a vengeance demon only in her spare moments. Kind of like having a hobby.
"You own the shop?"
"Yes, yes I do," Anya smiled proudly and surreptitiously ran her hand across the cash register.
"Actually you both own it," Tara supplied as she guided a wide eyed Willow towards the round research table. "But I believe you're more of a silent partner now," she added for Anya's benefit.
"I own a magic shop?" His tone was a perfect mix of disbelief, disappointment and curiosity. "How do I find the time with all my work at the library?"
"Oh, the library was destroyed along with the school," Anya informed him cheerfully. She'd never liked high school so had always been glad that it had been demolished. She'd just wished it had happened before she'd been forced to sit through hours of boring math. "Shouldn't you be researching now? You and your little friends need to leave soon, before you affect the timeline or something."
"The library was destroyed?" Gasped Giles.
"The school was destroyed?" Gasped Willow.
"Yes, it was very tragic," her words of comfort dispersed, Anya set about rifling the shelves for any helpful books. "Do you remember what book you took the spell from? We might have it here," her voice lowered and the last part came out as a whispered whine. "Unless you stole it to take back to England with you."
Giles was too busy stumbling back into a chair to hear what she'd said, his mind continually being tortured with the image of his precious books going up in a blaze. The library had become his second home while in Sunnydale and if he were being totally truthful it was more of a home than the house where he slept. But now it was all gone and he was a shopkeeper. "Dear Lord."
Anya patted him rather mechanically on the shoulder. "Yes very tragic," she repeated, while opening up a book in front of him. "Oh look, a book!" Her overly happy pronouncement was met with a grin from Tara and a role of the eyes from Buffy but neither of the time travellers seemed to notice her efforts.
"The whole school?" Willow asked once her mind was out of park and her brain was attempting first gear.
"I'm afraid so Will." Buffy knew how much Willow had loved school, so it was no wonder that she'd take its demise hard. But they really didn't have time for it or at least she didn't think they did. Then again she knew nothing about time travel so they could have all the time in the world. She was getting a headache, damn it! "Enough with the sad faces already, the school went boom but we all survived. End of story."
"Boom?" Willow echoed.
Tara laid a comforting hand on the redhead's shoulder but whereas Anya's gesture to Giles had been rather clumsy, hers was full of support and understanding. "I know it's a shock Will but you can't dwell on it. Not now." Her gaze took in Giles and her next words were for the both of them. "We need to get you all back to your time before something happens and you get stuck here, or worse."
"Worse?" It was Buffy's turn to look less than thrilled. "What worse?"
"Well they could go back and remember everything that happened here," Anya began helpfully. "That would mean a contamination of the timeline, with possibly disastrous results."
"What kind of contamination?" The slayer was now definitely spooked.
"Well they now know about the school blowing up, so it's possible they might find a way to stop it. Although that is unlikely, as we haven't told them how it happened." Anya thought back to what they'd discussed so far but nothing seemed too bad on the surface, then she remembered her helpful discussion of Tara and Oz's first meeting. "Or maybe wolf boy realises he'll lose Willow to Tara, so decides not to go on his round the world trip. Or when he comes back he could make sure he only went wolf on her when Riley and his commando buddies weren't there to protect her and solve the problem that way."
"He'd never do that!" Willow stormed.
"Will's right, Oz wouldn't deliberately hurt anyone," Buffy agreed. "Although we can't rule out the non-trippage idea."
"I-I think we should g-g-get to work," Tara couldn't even bring herself to look at the young redhead as she spoke. She knew how much Oz had meant to the teenager and she didn't want to see a spark of hope in those green eyes. Even after all they'd been through there were moments when she feared she was only second best in Willow's affections. The innate sense of worthlessness that had become a part of her after years under her family's less than gentle care was hard to break. Even with Willow's constant reassurances. To look over and see a near perfect replica of her lover wishing they'd never met would have been too much for her.
"No-one's changing anything," Buffy decreed. It might have taken her a while to reconci
It wont get much better if she ever speaks to Old Willow (god that sounds horrible
. Poor Tara feeling unworthy right now and Young Willow not knowing how to fix that...
both of which aren't finished 
but you're gonna update this story soon, right? 
at: 12/28/03 12:30 am